International Trade committee  Yes, we were surprised, but we're not trade gurus, so I don't know that we were in a position to have a strong opinion. We were very focused on section 232 and, yes, disappointed.

International Trade committee  The only thing—and this is just us sitting here—that would be preferable goes back to the first question about the timeline, but I can understand why it wasn't possible. It felt as though we did our work and then the finance department was going to put forward their recommendation to the Minister of Finance, who was then going to go to cabinet.

International Trade committee  No, the communication was great. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that if the government had the ability to communicate to us to say that we got past that hurdle.... We didn't get that. They just said that some had been put forward and “we will let you know when cabinet gets back to us, but we can't tell you for certain whether or not you've been put forward because we're not allowed to tell you that”.

International Trade committee  I think in an ideal world, yes, it would be shorter. That would be ideal. In the situation we found ourselves in, we had customers who had slowed their ordering to the absolute bare minimum and were holding their breath hoping to get through the steel tariffs, to get through NAFTA or to have section 232 reversed.

International Trade committee  Yes. We had many customers who applied alongside us. We don't have a trade group or a trade organization. We're a small industry. However, they certainly supported us, and we welcomed the government to probe us where necessary, as opposed to going unprobed, to make a decision. We wanted to give full disclosure and answer any questions that those individuals had.

International Trade committee  I would just say that we followed the advice we heard and we followed it to a T. When we were told to fill out an application, we filled it out as we were asked to fill it out. We were persistent in our following up. We just stayed on it. It was the biggest issue in our business, so we were on top of it.

International Trade committee  The 2,000 jobs is a representation of our customer base and ourselves. They would be affected.

International Trade committee  Yes, but I would say that our customer base is much larger for this product in Manitoba and Alberta. We do have customers in British Columbia, but given the nature of our customers—farmstead equipment, covered shelter manufacturers, playground manufacturers—there's fairly heavy representation in Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

International Trade committee  Thank you. Good morning. My name is Andrew Mindell. I am the president of UBS Industries. Sitting next to me is Jim Kerr, our general manager. Our company is a specialty steel distributor and agent that is located in Coquitlam, British Columbia. The product we're here to talk about today is known as in-line galvanized tube.