Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning to our witnesses, and thank you very much. It's rather an esteemed panel we have before us here today. It's great to have you here on this service sector study.
The purpose of this study is to help us understand better the nature and complexities of the service sector, and particularly how that sector strengthens the Canadian economy with respect to jobs and job opportunities down the road. Your presentations today certainly addressed many of those issues.
There is a suggestion that the manufacturing sector--a very important sector for Canada--is the engine of our economy, and the service sector is secondary to it; that it only exists because there are other primary jobs in the country from which people get wealth and then have the ability to purchase from the service sector. This is a narrative we have come across, yet earlier witnesses have suggested there is much more integration in the Canadian economy. There's a supportive role.
I wonder if I can ask Ms. Hughes Anthony and then Mr. Swedlove to comment on the degree to which your sector is integrated with the economy in that way.