Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's good to hear some positive comments about the public service. I can tell you that in Windsor we witnessed a lack of positions being filled. Some of the attacks on the civil service over the years created a significant morale problem; and people have moved on because there has literally been attack after attack on individuals who have actually bridged a lot of industrial development together through government programs—HRDC, for example, and you also have the research and development programs, which are very important. We're losing those individuals.
I would like to move towards the border and get an idea from the panel members about the new legislation coming out: the WHTI, the western hemisphere travel initiative; the passport requirement, which is still progressing at this point in time; and impacts of the additional regulations placed upon Canadian exporters and importers. How should we as a government deal with those initiatives put forth to us from the United States?
We talk a lot about productivity, and we often place that too easily on individual workers' shoulders, but when you have papers and documents delayed by inefficiencies, as well as line-ups, that gap is just as significant, at around $9 billion a year.