Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will do my best to not take a lot of time on this. I realize we have a vote, but I think it's pretty important for us on the government side to put our thoughts on the record on this.
Mr. Rajotte is here, as the chair of the industry committee, to show his support for the work that he and the committee he chaired did to bring this report forward. This certainly proves that we are intent on moving forward to help manufacturing and industry in this country. The report indicates the direction we want to take. It also shows, by the actions we've taken in the 2007 budget, that we are intent on doing so.
Let me point out a couple of things. One is that we have tried to work with Mr. Crête to amend the motion to be able to support it. But what we have is a request of the minister that will effectively tie his hands. He will not be able to act promptly.
It's very clear in the report on page 51, when we're talking about the SR and ED tax incentive program, that we are considering moving forward on this. The industry committee moved to consider this. It's incumbent upon us to move forward as quickly but as effectively as we possibly can. It's not responsible to move this motion forward without a true understanding of costs.
I want to quote from one of the last sentences that Mr. Rajotte had in the chair's foreword to the report. It speaks very directly, that “the recommendations presented in its report should be implemented in a timely fashion”.
If there had been an amendment that Mr. Crête supported, we certainly could have supported the motion to be able to speak about a timely fashion in which this could move forward--an allocation of time that made sense for the ministry, the government, and the manufacturing industry. Representatives from that industry were here yesterday and spoke directly to the fact that they didn't want us to move forward and spend funds on something that wasn't going to have a direct benefit and a direct impact on the industry itself.
I'm merely suggesting that if the amendment had been accepted, we would be supporting this, but as the motion now stands we will be abstaining from the vote.