Mr. Chair, Canada has one of the highest piracy rates in the western hemisphere. Our piracy rate is approximately 33%—and this is specifically of Microsoft products. Thirty-three percent of all Microsoft software in Canada is pirated or counterfeited. This compares with about 21% in the United States. Obviously it's not as significant as it is in parts of Asia, but as I mentioned, in the western hemisphere, Canada is one of the weakest nations as far as protection of those types of rights is concerned.
The loss to the economy from that is quite significant, both in taxes as well as in terms of the industrial base. It also is an impediment and discourages companies on the IP side to really want to develop products here.
Now, we understand, or are hopeful, that copyright legislation will be tabled in the coming weeks, which will help enhance that, but without strong enforcement at the borders and the ability of border guards to seize counterfeit products, it is going to.... It has to be an integrated strategy ensuring we have strong IP, anti-counterfeiting, and anti-piracy legislation, and enforcement and funding for the RCMP and the Border Services Agency to ensure we can execute against this. Because Canada, as I said, is unfortunately one of the worst nations with respect to this.