If I could refer you to this graph that shows the relationship between the appreciating dollar and employment in manufacturing, I think there's a pretty close relationship between the movement of the dollar and employment within the sector.
As I was saying, we're in a situation right now where we're responding not only to the high dollar, with companies having to cut costs in order to respond to the dollar, but also to the very different circumstances of a weakening of key export markets in the United States, in the automotive and consumer products sectors—including paper—and the housing market in the United States as well. So those are the key sectors.
The regions that will be affected by this most, or the companies that will be affected by this most, frankly, are the companies that are going to suffer as a result of overcapacity in North American markets. We'll see closures as a result of consolidation on a North American basis or of suppliers who've found they've lost their customers, either because of imports now coming into the country or because their customers have closed their facilities.
So it's the supply chains around housing and the automotive, forestry, and consumer products industries that I think are most vulnerable, particularly in Ontario and east of it, because that's where we have sectors that have become much more integrated within the North American market. I'm talking generally, because there are many, many companies in western Canada too that are also dependent on the U.S.
The companies that will do well are the companies that have a specialized, unique product that can sell anywhere around the world, regardless of what the value of the dollar is. The ones that can leverage pricing with their customers, the companies that are selling into the economic and energy developments in western Canada and the infrastructure and the construction industry across the country, those are the sectors that will continue to do well.
But I think there are a number of sectors that just cannot respond, either in terms of diversifying their markets or changing their cost structures, and those are going to be the hardest hit over the next six to eight months.