Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all for coming to visit us at this late hour.
I just want to start by answering a question Mr. Valeriote had here a few minutes ago. He was asking about what we've been doing.
I note that Dennis DesRosiers had some comments about that. He's been quoted a few times. He said on CPAC the other day: “Mr. Flaherty and Mr. Clement have been brilliant in how they've handled this going way back...”, talking about last summer and last fall. He says, “They came out weeks” after “the American government's going through this ridiculous process”—these were his words, by the way—“in early December of embarrassing the vehicle companies. Flaherty, Clement were up there saying we're there, we'll help you....” Then he finished by saying, “Brilliant by Flaherty and Clement. They really deserve a lot of credit.”
I'm sure Mr. Valeriote in his next round will make sure he gives them that credit.
I want to get to the issue at hand here. Actually, first of all, I want to talk a little bit around this scrappage program. I want to get a little bit of clarification around the scrappage program, because it sounds intriguing. We talk about Germany's $3,500 per car. I think someone mentioned 500,000 vehicles that we have to sell here. As I kind of crunch the numbers, it looks like a program that would cost somewhere between $350 million, and possibly over $1 billion, depending on how many people would take up something like that. Of course, we're in a difficult situation because we're dealing with priorities here. Obviously, there are a lot of pressures on the economy, outside the auto industry as well, and we're putting $34 billion out there in a stimulus plan to try to kick-start the economy.
I'll make one comment first and then I'll ask the question. The comment I would make is this. There's a significant number of vehicles that are sold in Canada but made outside Canada. What would that percentage be--anyone?