Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, of course, to the minister and our witnesses for appearing today.
I'm going to start locally and then move beyond the Windsor-Essex region in short order.
Minister, shortly after your appointment you were in the Windsor-Essex region, in fact making a very important ISF announcement in the Windsor port facilities—an important economic development project and a good set-up to the Detroit River international crossing project, with the amount of aggregate and other products that are going to have to proceed through the port into that region.
I want to talk about DRIC in just a moment, but I think that announcement builds on a number of important things. It wasn't long ago that we were in the depths of a very tough global recession. It hit the Windsor-Essex region harder, arguably, than anywhere else in the country, with 16% unemployment at the time.
As a government, we not only helped stabilize the auto industry, which was an important part for the base of the economy, but we stimulated the economy to create some very important jobs, with the highest infrastructure stimulus funding per capita across Canada being invested in the Windsor-Essex region. Since then, we've been moving to projects that are about diversifying the economy and improving the economic development, including that port announcement.
But there is the other important issue for the economic future of our region, and that is the Detroit River international crossing project, one that not only promises thousands of jobs in the immediate Windsor-Essex region, with construction and other things, but thousands of jobs through Ontario and into Quebec as well. It's very critical.
Can you give the committee, and of course Canadians who are watching these televised hearings, an update on what measures you're taking to maintain the momentum behind the Detroit River international crossing project, and as well, what steps or measures you're taking to engage our American partners in that important project?