From my perspective, whether it's the newly formed supply chain office or CBSA, it comes down to what priorities in budget spending are put on efficiency and trade issues. Too often things come down to money. That's just life, except that these are all investments. Everyone around this committee table—those from industry and the politicians—say that we are a trading nation. We are a trading nation because our forefathers made investments in all of these things. We cannot lose sight of that, so we need to continue to invest and pound the table, around this table, at budget time for both departments and the overall federal budget, so that when it comes to trade—international and domestic—we make that a priority and we make other spending decisions after that.
On May 9th, 2024. See this statement in context.