Thank you, Chair.
Good morning to my colleagues. I hope you and your respective families are doing well.
Welcome, Consul General, to OGGO and to this committee here.
Consul General, I at one time in my life lived in New York City for a period of about seven years.
To Ms. Vignola, I thank you for sharing your thoughts on the day of September 11. I was there that day. I'm a September 11 survivor. It is etched in my memory 23 years later and it will always be a part of me. I send my prayers and thoughts to those families who no longer have those loved ones with them and those bright futures that are no longer here, whether they're from Cantor Fitzgerald or from other firms that occupied the floors.
Mr. Consul General, I want to start my comments by apologizing. I think the word “liar” has been used today by some of my honourable colleagues. I've sat on committees and I've been in Parliament for the last nine years, and when we invite witnesses—whether they are from business, academia or non-profit groups, or whether they are consuls general like you—I always become dismayed when parliamentarians use that type of language. I personally think doing that is undignified and unnecessary and does not add anything in terms of parliamentary decorum.
As a member of the Canada-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Group and as someone from a riding that is very much occupied with trade and investment with the United States, I would say we have no stronger relationship than the one we have with the United States of America. Every day, $3 billion of trade and services go back and forth over our borders. New York state has an economy larger than that of most countries in the world and would be probably in the G10, if I'm not mistaken, and obviously we need to leverage that relationship.
The sale of the initial apartment is obviously going to bring in more proceeds than the purchase of the other apartment. I know it's basic math, which may not get across to some of my colleagues, but when you sell something for more than you buy something else for, there's actually what's called a surplus, and the net proceeds are coming into the government. I applaud the government for doing that.
One of the things I do want to say to you, Consul General, is that the nexus of New York city and those relationships that exist and the two-way trade that goes back and forth between the United States and Canada are immensely important in terms of finance, business, commerce for the Canadian economy, the standard of living and jobs. If you could just touch on that, that would be great.
Thank you.