Madam Chair, my hon. colleague from Welland raised some interesting points.
We cannot look at this as taking a one-pronged approach that is just about trade. Canada is an amazing country. It is full of natural resources, minerals, steel, all kinds of things that we export to the rest of the world. However, we have to do a better job if we are to move into a knowledge-based economy.
We have to transition ourselves from exporting our resources to looking at value-added resources. How can we commercialize technology in our country? We have spent a highly proportionate amount of money on research and development. I believe Canada is number one or two in the G8. That is a good thing.
I look at what this government has done with the FedDev program and the Regional Development Agency in southwestern Ontario. We have taken a number of great initiatives and they are crucial if we are to continue to compete in a global market and as we go to a knowledge-based economy.
We have programs under FedDev right now such as the Ontario advantage program, which is an applied research and commercialization initiative. We have invested in business innovation. There is the graduate enterprise internship program. We have scientists and engineers in business. We have technology development programs. The prosperity initiative was just launched. We have youth programs. We have the Canadian innovation commercialization program. These programs will help us as Canadians to compete, to develop great goods.
We do not have to look very far down the road from Niagara to Waterloo, where a little company called Research In Motion is located. By expanding markets, we have helped this company sell its products. We would never use all the phones this company produces in Canada.