Thank you very much, Mr. Malcolmsen, and thank you for your welcome to the city.
It is wonderful to be here in Oshawa. We'd love to be here longer, but we're doing seven centres in five days. We're getting a little tired as we go along, and I suspect we'll be even more tired after we finish at about midnight tonight.
The City of Oshawa, and certainly the member for Oshawa, made sure we would visit here, as it is a major source of manufacturing for the country.
Thank you very much for the welcome.
We'll move right into the meeting at this point. For the information of the witnesses and the members, this is the 30th meeting of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we are studying the challenges facing the Canadian manufacturing sector.
We have with us today Mr. Malcolmson, obviously, who just spoke. We also have David Paterson, vice-president of corporate and environmental affairs for General Motors of Canada. We also have, from the City of Oshawa, His Worship John Gray, the mayor. We are also expecting Dr. Rosen, who we will add in when he arrives.
At this point, perhaps we'll start with Mr. Paterson, with up to a five-minute opening statement. We'll then go to Mr. Gray, and then we'll go to questions and comments from the members.
Welcome, Mr. Paterson.