International Trade committee  That's a very good question. What's our responsibility? I think it's a shared responsibility. I think we're always being careful. It's easy to criticize government, and we're certainly never shy to do it when it's needed, but in the case of skills, it's as much a responsibility o

International Trade committee  Yes. We've actually done quite a few reports over the years on this issue. We have some recommendations as to how companies, the education sector, governments, can better work together to ensure that we have more.... I think there are two issues here. One is looking at making sur

International Trade committee  Meaning...?

International Trade committee  Some of our members do. I know some sector associations have their own initiatives. In our case, we're facilitating some of those linkages, but we're not necessarily directly involved as an association.

International Trade committee  It depends on what's in the environmental agreement. I think, as I—

International Trade committee  We haven't taken a position on it. I could consult my members. Nobody wants those trade agreements to lead to a situation such as the one you're describing. There's increasing talk about things such as carbon leakage. There's some debate, even within our own membership, on whethe

International Trade committee  I think the challenge is when you're in negotiations such as trade negotiations or negotiating a FIPA, you always like to come here and share your views and some of the key asks that you've made to your negotiating team, but as you're in the middle of negotiations, you always hav

International Trade committee  Yes, my understanding is that the unions are reviewing the way they've negotiated those. We're certainly in favour of transparency once the agreement is concluded. My personal advice would be for the committee to share with our negotiating team before or when we enter FIPA nego

International Trade committee  I didn't do it before coming here. We haven't done a survey in about a year and a half. I'd have to check back against our previous one, which was done right in the middle of the recession. It would be interesting to compare, yes.

International Trade committee  I haven't done it, but we could certainly do it and share the data with you.

International Trade committee  In terms of expansion, I think you have to consider both direct exports or direct imports, which show up in our trade statistics, and investment, which is a little harder to calculate. You also have to consider services. I know, for example, in terms of our membership, the secto

International Trade committee  In terms of reciprocity, in the sense of the benefits we give companies based in the other countries, yes, it's important. Obviously, we want those agreements to be fair and equal, but we're especially interested in Canadian companies getting protection for their investments in I

International Trade committee  I can start. That's a very good point. When it comes to trade deals, it enables companies to grow their business in international markets. It opens up the space, but companies need to be able to take advantage of it. One of the big concerns we have in some ways, you can almos

International Trade committee  I would say two things. On the one hand, as David was saying, you might just be seeing wood products being exported. Whether it's processed natural resource products or any other manufacturing product, increasingly what we're seeing is you're delivering value through that tangibl

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for inviting our association to appear before your committee once again. This time, we are here to take part in your consultations on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with India. I believe you