I think I should say immediately that I didn't achieve it. Canadian business is leading very much on this. What's taking place in Dubai and in the United Arab Emirates is something relatively unique. They have set out to diversify their economy in virtually every sector. One of the ways they are doing that is to make it a transportation hub, an entrepôt for this $1.5 billion market, which includes the subcontinent, even Russia.
One of my favourite stories is about an ATV agent who had a snowmobile shipped from North America by accident and was bemoaning the frustration and the inconvenience of having to ship it back. He decided to put it in his showroom just as a draw and came out the next day to see two customers arguing over who had the right to buy it. He didn't even have a price on it. Now he sells a couple of dozen snowmobiles out of Dubai every year.
We actually ran a fur show with the Canadian fur auction in Dubai very successfully.
This is an extraordinary environment. Dubai has become an exhibition centre, so it's like Germany in many ways. Huge shows take place, which have grown exponentially in their trade centre. Canadians started to come. It was a very efficient way for them to be introduced to the market, and, quite honestly, successful Canadians brought other Canadians along. I can't emphasize more the point that my colleagues have made. One thing leads to another in a snowball effect, and that's what we have.
The issue that's been brought up by the honourable members this morning—and I'm speaking personally, if you'll allow me—is a very critical one. We have an education job to do. We have to educate Canada that this is a very important place for Canada and a place for Canadians to do business and to build relationships, not only economic but social. We have to convince our press and our public that there is a cost to doing business, that when an MP or a minister or a government official travels to these countries, the return on that airfare is enormous, and you are playing a critical role in the business development.
I don't think any other country in the world is as hard as we are on our politicians and ministers for basically doing a very onerous job: flying in a short period of time halfway around the world and meeting a couple of hundred people or more. That is a personal comment.
I'll illustrate, if I can, the point that I think you are raising. At one of these exhibitions, there was a company, InterHealth Canada, that came and established a hospital in Abu Dhabi. It was an extremely successful contract. This hospital, the first accredited to Canadian standards outside of Canada, which was successfully drawing Emiratis to stay in UAE instead of going to clinics such as the Mayo Clinic and others, was staffed with Canadian doctors. There were over 300 medical staff there. At one of the trade shows, there was a Canadian company from Toronto, which was selling surgical gowns and medical clothing that doctors and nurses wear. It turned out that it was doing $1 million in business in the UAE, based on a contract, first of all, with the Sheikh Khalifa hospital, but then with others, because his garments were used by the Canadian doctors in Canada and could be washed 100 to 150 times, whereas the garments from the subcontinent, where you would expect to get them, deteriorated after five or ten washes. The last thing you would have thought was that a Canadian garment manufacturer of something as simple as a doctor's gown would have been that successful.
The same is true on the education side. The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology received a contract in the UAE to do some training for the oil industry. One of the things that came out of that contract was an award to an Alberta company to make a simulator for an oil operation. That was a $1 million contract.
The issue that we have to support is that this is an aggregate. It is a collective effort, and our companies seem to be extremely competitive. Perhaps where we are not competitive is government to government, which is the point that has been made this morning.
Thank you.