Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister. We certainly appreciate your coming out here to answer questions.
Minister, at a Manufacturing Canada Conference in May 2014, which is as relevant today as it was then, Robert Hattin, a former chairman of the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters board of directors, suggested that to get around the challenges to competing in the U.S. economy, Canadian manufacturers should simply buy an American company:
Business as usual is no longer an option, and we have to figure out other ways to continue to participate in the largest economy in the world. Let's buy America. Let's invest in America.
Of course, what Mr. Hattin doesn't say is that this will result in a potentially catastrophic loss of well-paying manufacturing jobs in Canada.
Minister, to stem further hemorrhaging of contracts and jobs in Canada during the year-long closure of the Canada-U.S. border, what is the Canadian government doing to ensure that manufacturers can thrive in Canada and jobs in Canada are protected from President Biden's latest tightening of the buy America provisions?