Thank you, sir, and thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
As the record shows, my name is Mark Fisher. I'm the president and CEO of the Council of the Great Lakes Region. I'm also pleased to have with us today one of my board members, Rakesh Naidu, the COO of the WindsorEssex Economic Development Corporation.
The council was established in 2013 with the help of Gary Doer, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., and his U.S. counterpart, David Jacobson. Our goal is to bring government, business, academia, and the non-profit sector together to find new ways of growing the Great Lakes economy while protecting the environment. We achieve this mandate by conducting insightful public policy research, convening dialogues with diverse interests at events such as our Great Lakes Economic Forum, and serving as a strong voice on regional matters.
My introductory remarks today will focus on the importance of the Great Lakes economy and, more importantly, on what more we can do to strengthen our long-term competitiveness and sustainability.
I'll begin with a number: $6 trillion. That's U.S. dollars, and it's the estimated value of the region's economic output in 2016. It's pretty big. Did you know that if the Great Lakes region were a country, it would be the third-largest economy in the world, behind only the U.S. and China?
Home to 107 million people, this region directly supports 51 million jobs, or a third of the combined U.S. and Canadian workforce. Over 50% of Canadian and one-fifth of U.S. manufacturing is based in the region, including over half of Canada's SMEs—roughly 650,000. Ontario and Quebec account for roughly 58% of Canada's $22 billion in agriculture and agrifood trade to the United States. The Great Lakes region is also an important energy hub, from clean natural gas to nuclear energy to hydro power.
Twenty of the world's top 100 universities are Great Lakes institutions. They help to attract three-quarters of Canadian and a quarter of U.S. R and D spending. There is a growing services sector in the areas of health care, education, engineering, legal services, and banking. In fact, though manufacturing employment is down roughly 15% from pre-recession levels in the Great Lakes region, education and health care are up by 21%, and professional services are up by 16%, according to BMO.
What's more, education, health care, and professional services have added 2.5 million jobs over the last 10 years, dwarfing the nearly one million job losses in manufacturing. Contrary to popular belief, the Great Lakes region is thriving and serves as the economic engine of the U.S. and Canadian economies.
However, the global economy is changing at an accelerated rate, and in unimaginable ways. We need to keep pace and figure out a way to get ahead of the curve, so where do we go from here?
First, we need to continue to support advanced manufacturing, invest in technology advancements, and get our SMEs export-ready.
Second, we need to build smart, energy-efficient transportation systems and increase our connectivity to global markets through supply networks and value chains.
Third, we need to accelerate investment in public and private sector R and D, as well as the backbone infrastructure that drives innovation, such as data science, analytics, and computing.
Fourth, we need to build a skilled and mobile workforce to respond to short-term labour gaps and long-term demographic headwinds.
Fifth, we need to double down on protecting and restoring the Great Lakes and investing in Great Lakes science and monitoring. Securing a clean environment, as well as an innovative and connected economy, will be our competitive advantage.
Sixth, we need to invest in high-growth sectors such as advanced manufacturing, sustainable food production, and services like tourism. If we can make these investments and do so by leveraging provincial and city investments in these and other areas, we will be positioning the Great Lakes to compete and win in the new economy.
Thank you. I'm happy to take your questions, especially with respect to the modernization of NAFTA. I also have a more detailed backgrounder that I'll leave behind; I'm more interested in your questions today.