The bottom line is you can't export abroad if you can't make it here. It's a fundamental aspect, and we have struggled in Canada for years with investment. Probably going back to the great recession, maybe even a bit before that, we've had investment problems. That certainly has accelerated over the last three or four years, in that time range, and we're not seeing it. Over the last year, as President Trump has moved into the U.S., it has created a lot of trade uncertainty in the United States, and then add on top of that trade uncertainty, massive tax reform and regulatory reform changes in the U.S. We've seen pretty significant outflows of capital from Canada into the United States. I don't think it's necessarily unique for Canada, but it is something we need to pay attention to. On our FDI numbers, the Iveson article is just one of many articles. I thinkThe Globe and Mail had similar numbers a few months ago. I know that even Minister Morneau has mentioned this post-budget.
The FDI numbers coming into Canada are a significant concern across the board, and for two reasons.
One, just for long-term competitiveness you need that FDI.
Two, in the manufacturing sector, whether it's wine, telecommunications, auto, or anything else, the sector is pretty much tapped out at capacity. We're sitting at somewhere around 85% overall capacity, whereas 82% was seen as maximum capacity. You can sign all the free trade deals you want in the world, but if you don't start increasing the capacity levels of Canadian facilities, you're not going to be able to export anymore. They're pretty much at full capacity, whether it's Europe, whether it's CPTPP, Mercosur. Even with the U.S., our ability to export more is really limited by our ability to draw that investment in the first place. We're not drawing the investment in, not creating jobs, not creating innovation, and we're not able to export because of that. We need to see that bump in investment in order to see the growth in exports sorted out.