Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister, thank you for coming to see us today.
During the last economic recession, Canada lost 300,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector. Those jobs have not been recovered since. Many stakeholders have stated that the Canadian dollar exchange rate against the U.S. dollar is one of the major factors that have hurt them and forced many small manufacturers into bankruptcy.
Currently, we are at par with the American dollar. Unfortunately, that does not really help our manufacturers. In addition, it doesn't help consumers, as they have not benefited from the rise in the Canadian dollar. The reason is that American and other exporters have decided to keep their higher flexibility and profit margin.
This morning, Mr. Carney told us that interventions to deal with the rise in the Canadian dollar and the floating dollar are in line with decisions made as a result of your own guidelines. We would like to know when the Canadian dollar will return to a lower rate so that our manufacturing industry can breathe a little.