Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank our witnesses for appearing before us today. I certainly found their testimony, as well as the responses to the questions so far, very informative.
Ms. Hayden, I'd like to start with you. You gave us a few very interesting statistics. You mentioned that 50% of Japanese Canadians live in British Columbia, and I think you mentioned that about 50% of Japanese visitors to Canada spend their time in beautiful British Columbia.
But I was really struck with your comments that were supportive of expanding our trade with Asian countries. You mentioned China, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, amongst others. Also, it was particularly interesting to hear that the premier's recent visit to Japan yielded 25 agreements totalling business in excess of half a billion dollars.
I guess what I'd like to add is that on a very recent visit of our Prime Minister to China—and I had the privilege of being on that delegation—to add to the 25 agreements that were signed in Japan, 23 agreements were signed in China, overseen by our Prime Minister and the Minister of International Trade, Ed Fast, totalling some $3 billion in GDP to Canada. So it is abundantly obvious that for Canada our trading with the Asian market is a big potential plus for us.
I'm just wondering if you've done an analysis of or have a handle on perhaps a dollar figure of what it would mean for British Columbia should an economic trade agreement be signed with Japan.