Thank you, Chair.
Welcome, everyone.
Frank, it's nice to see you today. I know from our conversations that your father was a man of deep faith. I know he was proud before and very proud of you still and is looking down on you and your family today. God bless, and obviously my condolences.
I've listened to this testimony very closely and I've followed along in the last few months in the House of Commons the smear and fishing expedition that some of my honourable colleagues, who have been elected by their voters, have made to you.
Actually, I want to say sorry. I apologize for their doing that. I'm not going to take responsibility, but I do apologize because companies in Canada, from coast to coast to coast, whether it's here in the Woodbridge Group.... Mr. Jamieson, you're part of the auto parts supplier base in Canada, the APMA. What they've done, stepping up and building masks, PPE, you name it.... A lot of companies stood up here in Canada and said, “We will be there.”
That's what I want to thank both of you gentlemen for doing, for delivering almost 8,000 ventilators for Canadians who have been impacted by COVID-19, so we could save lives and put in place the health capacity we needed.
You are both entrepreneurs who directly and indirectly employ thousands of Canadians in several provinces, in very well-paying, good-benefit, great middle-class jobs. I thank you and I want to encourage you to continue doing that, because entrepreneurs are at the heart of our economy and businesses are at the heart of our economy.
Mr. Baylis, we know you are a former member of Parliament, one with a lot of integrity, a lot of intelligence and we do miss you.
Mr. Jamieson, just for full disclosure, it's my understanding—and I believe it's in the public record, too—that you have donated to candidates in the past. I just want to get it on the record that, if I'm not mistaken, you have donated to prior Conservative candidates in the past.