Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to our presenters this morning. I appreciate your advice and words of wisdom.
As the chairman alluded to, we've been studying this to provide some direction for our government and all our small manufacturing enterprise businesses throughout Canada, which we are very concerned about.
I congratulate you, Ms. Anderson, for your 75th year of business. I look forward to hearing more.
I also want to set the record straight. There's a lot of fear-mongering from organizations such as Ms. Barlow's. It reminds me of a German proverb: fear makes the wolf bigger than she really is. This security and prosperity initiative isn't some kind of scary treaty or secret agreement; it's basically a series of common-sense discussions with our neighbours. We're trying to work together. A cordial relationship with your next door neighbour is a lot better than an adversarial one. I think this is what we're trying to do.
You need to also realize that about 80% of Canadians live within 160 kilometres of our border. We're looking at close to $2 billion worth of trade that transfers across the border daily. Those are the jobs of the men and women, Canadians, we're trying to protect.
In my own riding of Kelowna—Lake Country in the interior of British Columbia, we're not afraid of a seamless border. As a matter of fact, we're looking for a more efficient border. For small business folks, an efficient border saves money. I have a candle distributor in my riding, and it was 10 days of holding up their distribution at the border. Another manufacturer--and I'll put a little plug in for it--of a product called Beaver Buzz, which is taking on Red Bull, an energy drink, was stuck at the border for days.
It costs money for small enterprises. These aren't large corporations; these are independent business folks who have invested their hard-earned money. They want Canada and Mexico and the U.S. to work together.
I think you need to set the record straight and not send out the fear-mongering literature that you do. It's very disturbing. Canada is trying to work in a cooperative manner.
I'd like to ask Ms. Anderson and Mr. Adams whether they believe we need to work collaboratively with the United States to form a strong North American foundation and create borders that are impervious to security risks but are thin and non-disruptive for trade and investment to ensure the seamless movement of goods and services.