Mathew, you talked about not reinventing the wheel, using the associations that are there and giving them appropriate funding. One of the best tools that the ambassadors had when we were in the Ukraine was the Friday beer night, where all the Canadian companies came in and had a beer. We learned more about what was going on in the Ukrainian marketplace from each other than what any bureaucrat could tell us at that point in time.
I think it's different now, but at the time, EDC was promoting Ukraine quite heavily, saying there was a billion dollars. We were pretty excited about it until we realized we didn't qualify for one cent of it. We weren't in an appropriate sector. Hopefully they have some flexibility to recognize new sectors and throw money at that.
I want to go to Graham Shantz. I'll use an example of one of the things we're seeing out west, because I don't think they'll mind me sharing it. Bourgault Industries last week laid off 8% of their employees because of a competitiveness factor. The reality is that they have plants located both in Canada and in the U.S., and because of the tariffs, the surtaxes on steel coming out of the U.S., because of the aggressiveness towards steel not coming in from Asia, it's creating a scenario where they're no longer competitive, so they cut back. They're looking for savings, cost savings.
Actually, we're starting to see that happening in a lot of the manufacturing sector. They're saying they can't compete now because it's just too expensive; their input costs are just too high. What do you see as a solution for the dumping of steel coming out of China and Asian markets? What's the balance? We can't allow them to dump it into Canada, yet in the same breath, we do require that steel. What is a way to find balance? How do you work with the Chinese to get that balance?