Mr. Speaker, last weekend I joined my colleague from Windsor West and thousands from our community in calling upon the provincial and federal governments to act to protect our manufacturing industry. The rally “Our Jobs, Our Communities, Our Future” was a clear demonstration of the concern the people of Windsor--Essex have about the loss of jobs in this vital sector.
Later in the week I united with my NDP colleagues, the Canadian Labour Congress and again thousands of others on Parliament Hill in another rally to highlight the crisis in manufacturing and to present to the government a practical five point plan to address this problem.
Canadians have shown that we can be the best at manufacturing in the world. We want to continue that proud tradition but cannot continue to be a leading manufacturing nation without the proper tools.
It is time for the government to provide those tools and develop a manufacturing sectoral strategy and a national automotive policy.