Good afternoon and thank you, everyone.
My name is David McHattie. I'm vice-president of institutional relations for Tenaris in Canada. I'm the board chair of the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canadians has been severe by any metric, and I believe that the impact will be lasting for a considerable period of time. I was appointed to the COVID-19 supply council to provide insight and expertise regarding impacts on the Canadian manufacturing sector and how it can better support Canada during this time of need.
As an essential business for Canadians that directly generates 10% of GDP and employs directly 1.7 million Canadians, it is important that COVID-19 policy supports are developed with Canadian manufacturing in mind. Including direct and indirect impact, manufacturing amounts to nearly 30% of Canada's economic activity.
Priority issues for Canadian manufacturers are important for all of Canada. The safety and health of Canadian manufacturing employees is the primary priority. The industry needed access to PPE, timely testing and information to provide the goods essential for Canadians. Many manufacturers have ramped up or shifted production in response to the crisis to make more food, energy, PPE and other health care and health sciences products or input products. While this sector has modified its production, it has also had new safety protocols, and production regimes negatively impact its costs.
As many countries restricted supplies, Canadians became more aware of how important a stable, secure and flexible local manufacturing supply chain is to our national well-being. This is as important for industrial products as it is for consumer products. Organizations like the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters were able to quickly transmit best practices through training services and to connect to members.
By creating the COVID-19 supply council, the federal government took a good step in reaching out to a diverse group for feedback, insights and support. The diversity of this group led to stimulating discussion that benefited all. Initiatives undertaken by the government that connected suppliers and buyers to establish a contingency reserve for strategic products and to inspire the expansion of Canadian supply chains have been lauded universally.
Considering that we're all learning lessons from the past 15 months, it is important that we continue to ask ourselves questions. How has the definition of essential goods changed for Canadians? Manufacturing does matter. Can we develop ideas and produce them here to supply ourselves and the world? How can we stimulate more domestic supply of essential goods through industrial policy and procurement strategies? How can we inspire Canadians to buy more local without limiting the benefits from globalization?
It's with the spirit of questions like these that the supply council worked. I appreciated the opportunity to participate and to contribute and felt like the government was listening to the views of manufacturers and exporters and Canadians broadly.
Thank you.