The idea of outward processing was first raised as a recommendation by our industry during the course of the joint government-industry working group on textiles and apparel, which was several years ago. It was one of our recommendations. We finally got a meeting last March with the chief of staff to the then Minister of Finance, and at that time we received a commitment that they would proceed with looking at outward processing.
We've been working on it ever since. There has been meeting after meeting after meeting, and delays. I'm not going to say we're not making progress, but the problem is that the progress isn't being made fast enough for our industry, which, as Mr. Crête has pointed out, is closing plants and slowing down production because we don't have orders; we don't have customers to sell to.
Outward processing would provide business opportunities for Canadian textile manufacturers to continue to employ people in Canada and to continue to invest in Canada. It's not happening fast enough. Consoltex is an example. I think in the press release that was issued, Mr. Thibault mentioned specifically that the time had run out for that particular plant. There are other plants in Canada that can still benefit, if outward processing is implemented soon.