Mr. Speaker, it is an honour as the member for Essex to speak to the throne speech which was so eloquently delivered by Her Excellency Adrienne Clarkson whom I would like to congratulate on her appointment as Governor General. I know that she will bring respect, integrity and enthusiasm to her new position and will serve the Canadian people both gracefully and honourably.
Today I would like to reaffirm my thanks to the constituents of Essex for giving me the privilege and opportunity to represent them in the House of Commons over the past six years. As many members know, my riding of Essex is situated in southwestern Ontario, the southernmost part of Canada and consists of the newly amalgamated towns of Amherstburg, Essex, Kingsville, Lakeshore, LaSalle, part of the town of Tecumseh and all of Pelee Island.
Windsor and Essex county has been the core of Canada's automotive sector and industry since 1925. Daimler Chrysler Canada's operations are headquartered here, along with major facilities for both Ford and General Motors. Since 1991 their combined investment has totalled over $6 billion. Their presence has attracted over 500 manufacturers of auto related parts, supplying state of the art machinery, machine tools, moulds, stampings, dies and automation transfer equipment.
With less than 2% of Canada's population, our region is home to 20% of all tool and die makers, 50% of industrial mould manufacturers and 80% of the automation transfer machine companies operating in Canada. Our workforce is diversified, dependable and disciplined with old-fashioned work ethics.
Keeping our workforce in tune with technology is a top priority among our manufacturers and educational institutions. The University of Windsor has established itself as one of Canada's foremost research universities. In partnership with government and industry, it has initiated programs pioneering the development and deployment of advanced technologies. In addition, the Chrysler Canada University of Windsor Automotive Research and Development Centre, a joint venture, brings together the best business and educational minds to create both company driven and research oriented solutions.
As well, St. Clair College of Applied Arts and Technology concentrates on management productivity, trends and skills development and manufacturing technologies in tool and die and mould making. We are responsive to the industry's needs where training is carried out on the factory floor where students gain access to the latest in technology.
As chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry in the last session of parliament, and as the member for Essex with such a vibrant technology based community, I was pleased to hear the Governor General outline the steps that we will take to improve our infrastructure of skills innovation and research. The industry committee took action on this front and held extensive hearings since 1997. It met with individuals from the university community, research councils and the private sector, and listened to their suggestions and recommendations.
At one of our hearings, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, the Canadian Association of University Teachers and the Canadian Consortium for Research, the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, and the Canadian Graduate Council highlighted their focus together in the opening paragraph of their submission by stating:
Canadians realize that innovation is vital. It is the foundation for our economic and social prosperity and our ability to compete in a global market. To be successful, we need a steady stream of new ideas, a well-educated workforce for the knowledge economy, and mechanisms to transfer effectively ideas from the laboratory bench to the marketplace. And we need to ensure that the innovation process is built on a strong and healthy foundation.
The increased support to the granting councils will ensure that a healthy foundation exists. It will enable them to forge new partnerships with our universities such as the University of Windsor, to attract the best research minds in the world. This will be developed through the innovative program of 21st century chairs for research excellence that the Prime Minister outlined in his speech. Through the research granting councils the Government of Canada will fund the creation of 1,200 chairs.
The industry committee in its 19th report entitled “Research Funding—Strengthening the Sources of Innovation” recommended that funding to the granting councils be increased. I am very pleased to see that the government is acting on the request in response to members of the committee and members of parliament.
The committee also heard that the number of students in the natural sciences and engineering is increasing and the need for support for funding their research in this area is increasing correspondingly. We also know that the government must intervene and act in order to help the challenges of commercialization.
As Robert Giroux from the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada said, “To me, the major impediments are the ability of the universities to identify the potential for a research product, and secondly being able to move that product to the marketplace”.
We know the throne speech identified that the Canadian government will help to assist in the commercialization of research from universities and government centres. This is now a priority of the government.
The government also understands that Canadians cannot be productive and prosperous if they are not healthy. In the throne speech we confirmed our continued commitment to ensuring that our health care system will meet the needs of our growing population.
We will build on our health record by supporting partners and testing innovations in home care, pharmacare and integrated service delivery over the next two years. A modern health information system will make health information more accessible to professionals and our citizens.