I too will support it. There are some concerns. I know Colin has Oshawa. I'm concerned when you start reading in the paper that Ford's going to restructure. There are rumours of Brampton being shut down with Chrysler.
I think we need to bring people in front of us and ask them very tough questions. Is it labour rates? Is it power rates? Is it something else? Is it municipal taxes? Is it provincial taxes? Is it federal taxes? What exactly is it that is making us unattractive to locate here in Canada?
We need to identify that and we need to be brave to address those issues. We need to look at them and say, “What does that look like? Can we do anything about that?” We need to work together, otherwise, I think we will be like Australia. We won't have an auto sector. That's where it's heading.
We can do all the innovation in the world, but if we can't capitalize on the innovation in production here in Canada, then what good is it? If we're going to do all this research and development here in Canada and then find out they are saying, “Yes, great. Thank you, university”—whichever university is involved—“we are going to take it now and go to Detroit.” That is problematic. That is not what Canadians are expecting from us.
I think it's good for us to have a review once in a while, and look at things, and say what's right and what's wrong. I think we should be very bold. I think the workers need to understand that we are being bold, and we're not sitting back here just letting it happen. We're actually fighting for them. If this committee doesn't fight for them, who will? The Americans aren't fighting for them. The Mexicans aren't fighting for them. We have to fight for them, so let's fight for them.
Let's know the facts. That means, as I said, bringing in GM, Ford, Chrysler, Honda; bring in the union bosses; bring in everybody impacted. Let's bring in some municipal politicians and some provincial politicians. Let's see what they are doing and why maybe that's having a negative effect on our ability to keep these guys here.
Colin is right, Oshawa went off-course. They were told their employees were the best in the world. GM said this was wonderful. They had a 100-year history, yet they still walked away. It doesn't make sense. There's something else going on here, and we had better identify that pretty quickly before we lose everybody else.
Colin, I think you have a good motion. For a guy coming out of western Canada who's worried about his oil and gas workers and 100,000 jobs in that sector, I will support you on this because it's important. We can't let any sector in Canada be decimated as we're seeing right now.