Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for appearing before committee, ministers. It is a precedent and that's good; industry seems to set those precedents.
I will continue with the automotive. I understand there has been the continuation of funding and the plan has changed a little. My concern is that the fund still is greatly insufficient compared to other countries. In Canada, including with trade agreements, we've gone from number two in auto manufacturing in the world to number 10 over successive governments.
Where we're at now is what's really important. My concern is the lack of competitiveness that we have with our trade agreements related to other countries, when you look at what's happening in Mexico and also in the southern U.S. But I guess I'll finish with this so we don't get into arguments over numbers, because that's not helpful at this moment: what we have is what we have.
There's a commitment to continue to rehabilitate and get CAPC going, the Canadian Automotive Partnership Council. In earlier days when I had less grey hair, Minister Rock, at that time, included not only the CAPC, those that are applying for direct funding, but also the unions, the parts suppliers, the innovators, the third-party repair industry, and a series of others. We created at that time a red light being not good; a caution light meaning we needed to work on those; and a green light being things that were working. One of them at the time was the caution light for transportation being the Windsor-Detroit bridge, which was necessary and is now being built.
I'll conclude with this to let you answer. Do you have a commitment to reinstate that and provide that, especially given that we have comprehensive funds? They're not sufficient in my opinion but they might be for others. We still have to have the discourse and also a business plan moving forward as opposed to what we've been doing now, which is a Hail Mary pass at the last minute to see if we can get something done.