Thank you, Mr. Chair and fellow members. I've been around the room and had a chance to meet some of you.
I'll start by giving you a brief history of Lynch Fluid Controls, a mix of what we do and some observations, too.
Lynch was started 27 years ago. We have approximately 100 employees and export to 57 countries. We're in the hydraulic and motion control industry and we have markets around the world. We serve plastics, medical, military, aerospace, mining, and entertainment industries. In 2014, NASA was our largest customer. We serviced vehicle-launch systems for Kennedy Space Center.
Lynch exhibits products around the world. We are in the U.S.A., France, the U.K., Germany, Latin America, and Chile.
In 2013 I began serving on the SME advisory board, and have done so with great pride.
We utilize the trade commissioner service as much as we can. We use EDC, BDC, CME, and we have now approached the CCC, which has taken great strides to help us out.
In 2014 we attempted to buy an American company and were not successful, but we did have a lot of assistance from BDC and EDC, and they were both very helpful in the process. EDC came to bat and provided financial assistance for us.
Our company has taken an active approach in utilizing the trade commissioner service, which has most recently helped us open up new markets.
The EDC recently has come to bat and helped out with backing the CME and helped to launch a new system called the Enterprise Canada Network, or ECN, not just for manufacturers but for all industries. This is a system where companies in other countries and governments in other countries can utilize access to Canadian companies and make contact with them and be able to do business with them.
Recently the government has been promoting trade with small and medium-sized enterprises and has created a Go Global program. I attended two of these sessions and spoke at one—with a little bit better dexterity than I am today. I feel that these programs need to be better attended by SMEs. The EDC people and others who have attended have asked for more time in advance of these meetings so that more eligible SMEs can attend.
My feeling is that more Canadian companies need to go and actually get on planes and get out of the country, go abroad and explore other markets. The government has done a tremendous amount to provide assistance to them, but they do need to be self-motivated. In a recent EDC commercial that was on TV, a fellow is walking through the house and there are different items that are made in different countries exhibited, but not very much is from Canada. Canada actually has a lot to offer, but we need to get out and show it.
Our company utilizes EDC receivables insurance. This has been a great help and given us lots of confidence in our ability to go abroad. We are now also making inroads with CCC, the Canadian Commercial Corporation, which we hadn't in the past. With the work that we've done with NASA in building launch systems for Kennedy Space Center, I think this is something that they are interested in and can help us out with.
It's recently come to my attention that the transportation infrastructure in Canada may not be adequate to handle increased exports. In other words, the kitchen is ready to cook the food, but we don't have the wait staff to take it out. Attention does need to be paid to that. This is coming from Transport Canada.
A recent article I read by David Suzuki draws attention to the Government of Canada being sued on several occasions by U.S. corporations for failing to comply with NAFTA regulations. Mexico is also a victim of this. The U.S.A. has not lost a case, but Canada has not made any cases against them, from what I know.
Last week the Prime Minister was at our location in Toronto, in Mississauga actually, and made a commitment of $50 million to assist SMEs, to new exporters, and also to SMEs that are exporting but want to expand their current footprint. Additional funding is also being provided to fortify and deepen the reach of the trade commissioner service. It's unfortunate that such a great announcement is sometimes overshadowed by world events, but we can't get away from those.
I'd like to thank the trade commissioners that we have been in touch with. They've been of tremendous help in opening up markets for us. We'll be exhibiting in Germany in a few weeks. We've had the assistance of Angela Spreng in Munich, Christine Colevray, Rainer Kunau in Michigan, Maria Stihovic in the Ontario region, and Benoit Leduc. I think we will be meeting Maximillian Bossdorf from Berlin, and over the past few years we've had Ethan Bensoe, Gerald Boamah, Maria Bofil, Lauren MacLennan, Neil Robinson, Robert Tate, Heidi Wang, David Weiner, and Henry Wells in Dallas.
These are just a few names. It gives you an example of what the reach is and how many trade commissioners are out there. There are a lot of them. It's up to the individual companies to make use of them. We don't have a worldwide sales staff, but we do export to 57 countries. Our goal is 75 countries by 2018. We're going to make the most use of the trade commissioner service to accomplish this.
That's all I have to say for the moment. After the next speaker I'm available for questions.