I'm proud that you have asked this very important question. There has been a lot of talk about this issue and a lot of studies carried out.
I published a report in 2004 entitled Open for business? which deals with these issues. The manufacturing sector is indeed suffering. This is mainly because the sector is not innovative enough.
We would be much better equipped to be competitive in a global marketplace if we were more innovative and had more skills training. You used the example of the textile company that adopted this approach and which, today, is highly successful.
The report Open for business? points out that we cannot be competitive cost-wise; that's impossible. China, India, and other emerging countries and developing countries will always have it over us when it comes to cost effectiveness. We will never be competitive from a scale standpoint: We'll never be able to compete with the Americans or Chinese on that level.
So what can we do? We need to be able to develop highly innovative specialized products on a small scale, and we need to do this in such a way that the Chinese and Americans will have a tough time emulating us. That's the approach we need to take.
We also need to think about what we can do policy-wise to establish a climate which will encourage companies to be innovative, train their employees and become competitive in a global marketplace. We never recommend tariff barriers or protectionist measures for these sectors because it would be damaging to the industry in the long term. We will never allow that type of approach. On the other hand, we need to equip our manufacturing sector with the tools it needs to be innovative.
Ben made a point about the auto industry. I want to stress the importance of being innovative if we want to have a booming auto sector—a manufacturing sector which is crucial to Ontario. Research and development is being carried out in the "biomaterial" field with the aim of developing vastly different auto parts to what we have today. We're talking about parts which will meet not only Canada's but the world's environmental needs. That right there is the future of the manufacturing sector, but it needs to adapt.