Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you Minister, for being here. I'm happy you were able to join us.
I'm the MP for Sudbury, which is in mining, obviously. I'm from Kapuskasing, a pulp and paper town. My dad was a welder there. I'm a bit like Mr. Cannings in that I grew up with trade disputes with the U.S. being something that affected us very often.
It's a challenging file. As we all know, we need a partner on the other side to sit down with. When they're not there it's hard to negotiate with an absent partner. I know that's what happened in the last four years. I know we were ready, willing and able to engage, but when there's no partner to engage with it's quite impossible.
I want to congratulate you and thank you for your trade diversification strategy. We understand that because of the challenges, certainly with the one major trading partner, we need to diversify. That's something I've been hearing for a long time.
The measures and the team you put in place are very promising. I think really good things will come from that for all of Canada.
I want you to touch on your views of the importance of this trade diversification strategy, the significant amount of funding and supports that you have put in, and why you believe this will give us the results we're looking for.