I think we need a more common strategy as well, though. As we were travelling across the country talking to manufacturers in communities, everywhere we went we were told the business was different, that the communities were different, that “we're unique”. Every business sees the problems only according to their business or business sector.
Believe it or not, on the west side of Toronto we were told that we have to prepare a different business strategy there, because business in Etobicoke is not the same as business in Scarborough, and heaven forbid if anybody is the same as Toronto; that just doesn't happen. And business in la Beauce is different from business in Vancouver.
The second thing we learned, though, is that everybody is unique in extremely similar ways across this country; that the issues are the same. They are issues of skills, and high business costs, and the dollar, and taking advantage of those new market opportunities, and building a flexible, highly trained workforce.
Those are all common issues, and in a sense they're issues that the automotive industry, the aerospace industry, the machinery and equipment industry, and the textile industry are all facing.
The third thing we learned, though, is that people are looking for a local solution. What may be one of the most challenging parts of this strategy for manufacturing that we have to come to grips with is that while we need a national vision for a competitive and prosperous manufacturing sector in Canada, we need local institutions that are competitive. Whether they're the colleges or the investment and the R and D centres, that's where the real difference is at the local level.