Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for being here.
There is no doubt that the pandemic has highlighted the decline of Canada's manufacturing sector, not only with regard to vaccines but a number of different industries. The remnants have had to transition to doing everything from medical equipment to hand sanitizer made by breweries, a whole series of things that were identified as weaknesses before, while we have signed serious trade agreements that allowed environmental or labour and working conditions to be be used as subsidies against our own manufacturing base.
This is no different, in many respects, from the promises by the large Rx and D and other pharmaceutical industries to reinvest in Canada with tax reductions and the extension of patents. Those were supposed to bring a panacea of investment, which never took place.
As we try to build our sector back here—and I'd like to ask Mr. Costen this—Canada is one of 182 countries that signed on to the tobacco issues with regard to the WTO. How much has this damaged our reputation? In this process, what is being done to build that back? We're still waiting for a decision. This is not an unknown thing. Philip Morris has a very clear history. Now we're caught in this situation. We're one of 182 signatories. What can we do at this point to bring in an internal process so it doesn't happen again?