Industry committee  I mentioned two specific things. We know that Canadian governments will not do what is often done in the States, which is to give a tax holiday. What are the other tools that can help? Certainly tax treatments such as deferred tax and accelerated capital cost depreciation treatments are ways to do that.

Industry committee  Second, the federal government in particular has a lot of programs and funding at its disposal. Even when we talk to folks in the ISED department, it is difficult to keep track of it all. The work of this committee, in our understanding, is to try to provide some strategic focus for Canada's investments in this area.

Industry committee  I think there are two things that have changed, and they're both very important to note. The first is that if you went back a decade ago, Canada was not on anybody's short list for investments in the chemistry industry. As much as we might have wanted it and gave the right signals, it wasn't on anybody's short list.

Industry committee  Let me make a couple of comments to your first point about food. One of the key solutions provided by the chemistry industry is in the area of food preservation. More than half of all the food grown never makes it to the table. It ends up disposed of somewhere along the way, either through pests or through waste because it's no longer fresh.

Industry committee  We spend a lot of time—

Industry committee  —working with the committee on environment and sustainable development as they've looked at Canada's chemical management plan and CEPA, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. It's no secret that Canada's approach to chemicals management is second to none in the world. The folks in this room may not know it, but the United States has gone through its first modernization of its chemicals management in over 40 years.

Industry committee  Let me give just a basic quick overview for people who don't know the chemistry industry well. You might wonder in the back of your mind why we have a chemistry industry in Alberta. People say it's the oil. No, it's not the oil; it's the natural gas liquid. There are two pathways to make traditional industrial chemicals.

Industry committee  There already is strong cogeneration activity taking place in Sarnia, and one of our messages to the Ontario government, as they develop their cap and trade, is to remember that it was incentivized as one means—and I don't mean financially, but through policy—as a key means to back the province out of coal-fired power.

Industry committee  I think that's the biggest challenge for policy-makers to grasp. We're hearing a lot about additional costs, but we're not hearing about the things that can improve the competitive position. I've just laid out in front of you a situation where rather than attracting 10% of North American investment, we're only attracting 1%, so I think there is a very clear message of what would happen if we add additional costs onto the industry without removing them somewhere else.

Industry committee  That position would become more untenable.

Industry committee  These are highly skilled jobs, and as a comparison, in the Canadian manufacturing sector the average wage is $54,000 a year and in chemicals writ large, it's $72,000. That's a 32% advantage. In industrial chemicals, and that's what we represent, the average salary is nearly $100,000, and that's a 77% markup on the Canadian manufacturing average.

Industry committee  We don't take students who don't excel at university, parcel them into a skilled trade, and think they're going to succeed. In today's world these are very technical, demanding jobs that demand an incredibly high level of intelligence, and it takes a lot to train an operator to safely run a chemical plant or most other manufacturing institutions.

Industry committee  Yes, absolutely, throughout the industry. I can think of some universities we're especially involved with, such as the University of Alberta, Sarnia's Lambton College, the University of Guelph, Western University, and the University of Toronto. These are all universities that are affiliated with our manufacturing operations.

Industry committee  It goes with it, absolutely.

Industry committee  Excellent. That's a very good point. All these large investments in the chemistry sector become, as I call them, “anchor investments”. I talked about 20 platform chemicals, whereas there are thousands in the economy. Being closely located to where those platform chemicals are produced is often a strategic advantage.