Mr. Chair, I want to thank my colleague from Bourassa for his passionate and very interesting speech, and also for his question.
As members know, the economies of Canada and the U.S. are highly interconnected. Our supply chains are so connected that a product sold by a Canadian or American company could have crossed the border five or six times. Take, for example, a Ford transmission.
First, pieces of Canadian scrap metal are sent to Metaldyne, in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where they are forged by American workers. These materials are then returned to Linamar, a Canadian auto parts manufacturer in Guelph, whose factory employs about 560 people, to be manufactured and assembled. These pieces then cross the border a third time to the Ford plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, where they become parts of a fully assembled transmission. The transmission is then sent to the Ford assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, where it is installed in the vehicle. Then, when it crosses the border for the fifth time, the product is sent to an American dealership.
Some products take a long journey before entering Canadian and American markets. Because our countries are so interconnected, we have one of the largest and most mutually beneficial relationships in the world. It is very important for our government to strengthen this relationship. It is important for all North Americans that we sign a NAFTA agreement that is beneficial to all parties, so that we can continue to grow trade between our two countries.