Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to our witnesses.
I've been on the international trade committee since 2006, and I'm a new member on the finance committee, so I understand the importance of Canada's economic future in regard to our ability to be successful global traders. We rely on those one-in-five jobs, the 20% of our GDP, and the expanding of our markets. Minister Fast has been working out 38 new markets in trying to expand and to diversify outside the United States, even though the United States will continue to be our number one ally. This initiative with China and the RMB trading hub is definitely of great importance, as they are the world's number two trade economy right now.
I want to clarify one point before I go to Mr. Kingston for a question. Mr. Brison alluded to an article in The Wall Street Journal that stated the CIC may move its North American headquarters to New York from Toronto. I just wanted to say that it was an article from December 2013. Since then, the government has provided, as you mentioned, certainty with the FIPA and the predictability and the confidence that businesses require to have both bilateral trade and investment both ways.
Mr. Kingston, in your opening comments, you mentioned the need for “a strategic partnership”. Could you elaborate on what would be envisioned there from the perspective of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives?