Mr. Speaker, to meet the needs of the apparel and textiles industries, the government launched in 2003 a three year $33 million Canadian apparel and textile industries program, and provided $10.9 million to enhance Canada Border Services Agency efforts against the illegal transshipment of textile and apparel products into Canada.
At that time the government also created the joint government-industry working group on textiles and apparel to examine the longer term issues affecting the competitiveness of these two industries.