Regarding your questions with respect to R and D, again, the Quebec Aerospace Association looks at it from the perspective of SME development.
The Montreal area or Quebec aerospace industry represents, if not the third, one of the three largest aerospace centres in terms of cities in the world. The largest proportion of how those numbers are calculated is based on sales. It's not based on how much we manufacture in Canada.
So when you see R and D going down, it's got to be largely driven by the OEMs, who are no longer investing in their own infrastructure in Canada. They're looking for cheaper solutions outside. They're going to China, they're going to Mexico, they're going to other places to find alternative supply.
What we would encourage in terms of R and D investment--and I tried to make the point in my opening remarks--is that we actually invest in developing the SMEs, because that's the infrastructure that will bring people to Canada. It will not just attract the OEMs who live in Canada and the major suppliers of business in Canada, but it will also bring the others to Canada, as a competitive place.
For example, competitiveness is not always defined just in terms of cost. You can go to China and get cheap parts, but you can spend a lot of money setting up a facility and you can have a much higher rejection rate on components when it's coming from an organization that doesn't have the same level of skills, quality, procedures, and so on that we're used to in Canada.
So if we can get the level of performance of our SMEs up to the point where they're actually adding value, it starts to look a lot more attractive for outside companies and Canadian companies to look to Canada, and then SMEs will actually be in a position where they're not just relying on the OEMs in Canada, but they're getting business from outside Canada. They will have their own war chest to invest in research and development, to develop their own business.
That's a major component that I think we're missing. It's largely overshadowed by what the OEMs are facing, and the SMEs are just living in the background of all of this.
So I'd encourage us to look at it from a perspective of how we get the SMEs to a point where they're also masters of their own destiny.
With respect to accessing C-17 technology, I would imagine that on a program like that, if Canada was going to pursue the procurement of that kind of equipment--just as we're participating in the joint strike fighter program--there would be agreements and technical assistance agreements, TAAs, in place to allow Canada to participate. Through the folks I've met here in Canada and the folks who are here...certainly Boeing is very aware of our industry and our capabilities and would be very interested in working proactively with us to try to find a solution to that.
So I would not see that as a walk-away or a total roadblock. It's just a question of going through the proper channels and proper registrations and proper documentation to be able to access the technology. It wouldn't be a roadblock for us.