Industry committee  I wanted to address your question about regulation, because Mr. Fontana raised it as well. I want to come back to the example of the Netherlands, because this is not a matter of deregulation; it's not a matter of taking away, or reducing standards, or anything like that. It's simply reducing what it takes to comply with the regulations.

Industry committee  There are a number of elements to that. As you say, high energy prices are both a blessing and a curse, depending on where you sit. On the one hand, we've got to recognize, as Jay Myers was pointing out, that a lot of the fluctuation, the volatility, that we've seen in energy prices worldwide flows from the fact that a lot of the major producing regions are facing highly unstable situations.

Industry committee  On the global trade side, we've always seen an advantage for Canada in supporting the strong rule of law multilaterally. The fact is, multilateral agreements help the smaller countries deal with the bigger ones. Obviously we've also seen a huge impact from our bilateral and trilateral deals within North America.

Industry committee  I would have to agree on the broad thrust of that. As I say, if you don't get the investment environment right it doesn't matter whether you're a small business person in a small community or an executive in a multinational that's based somewhere else. You make decisions about where can we make money in our business.

Industry committee  In what Jay is talking about, it's clear that to date we've seen strong investment by manufacturers. They're saying, “We're doing our best to grow our businesses.” But if we look at the longer-term future, how are we going to handle a situation where the global economy is not as healthy as it has been for the past decade?

Industry committee  I think the answer is both. There are broad conditions, and what we're suggesting is there are ways that governments can improve competitiveness conditions for doing business across all sectors. But I agree that each sector has its own particular challenges. If you're talking about aerospace, obviously one of the big challenges is the fact that it's a global industry in which a lot of the competitors are heavily subsidized.

Industry committee  I will. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think my colleagues have offered you a pretty detailed review of the challenges facing the sector, so I won't go into a long exposition here, but I would, if I may, offer a few comments to lead us into the question period. The first comment I have has to do with a remarkable and somewhat troubling divergence within the Canadian economy.