Thanks for coming here on short notice; let me start by saying that.
I'll throw in an extra thanks to the clerk and research analysts on the committee. They're giving up their own evening time to spend time with us over the next few nights as well--a significant sacrifice for them.
I'd like to start with a little bit of context. One of the things I was surprised to see when I started looking at the situation, when I became parliamentary secretary in November, was that Canadian auto sales, or sales within Canada, at that point were actually still relatively strong. I believe at that point we were still above the year before for auto sales, while in the States they'd fallen off the cliff. Of course, we talk a lot about proportionality, such as the 10% of sales but the 20% of manufacturing here.
How important is that global context? Perhaps you could differentiate, for anyone who might be watching this on TV with interest or who have questions, such as many of my constituents, in terms of that global context.