Well, it certainly is threatening jobs in Canada. We have identified around 250 of our members who are affected just by the Water Quality Investment Act alone here, who are selling into municipal and state water technology and clean water and waste water sectors. Many of these companies had no idea that they would be affected until the contractor came to them and told them they had to sign an affidavit saying that their product is produced in Canada. As I say, we're very concerned that we may be seeing that appear in other pieces of legislation coming out of Congress.
In terms of the threat of retaliation, I think that is very much on the minds of U.S. business groups and U.S. businesses that are our allies in Washington and in the United States who are opposed to the buy America policy. This is not good policy in the United States. It's not good policy to have these restrictions in Canada either, particularly if you want to get the money out the door quickly to infrastructure projects, to keep jobs here in the time of a recession. This is not the way to do it. But I think the threat of retaliation has some resonance. I think it's a strong negotiating tool. I think the Halton Hills resolution that is going to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities is a good form of that threat.
This is not a threat of locking American suppliers out of the Canadian market. It's simply a reciprocal market access resolution, with waivers in it and everything else. There has to be some credible threat, I think, to back up a strong negotiating position here, and the government does not have to threaten. That's our job. That's the job, and I can tell you very strongly that among our membership we're dealing with this all the time. Our business is failing. What are you doing about it? If we're going to be locked out of the American market, why don't we have similar provisions here? That's a widespread sentiment among our members, and I think that has to be communicated by our government to the U.S. officials very strongly. As I say, that's what we can bring to the table here, but clearly it's something that should be used as a negotiating tool by the government itself.