Subcommittee on the Automotive Industry in Canada committee  I can respond to that. We have been working in partnership with Ontario and the federal government consistently. We indicated that we were going to be able to proceed, and under our restructuring plan all this would be recognized, with significant new investments in St. Catharine

Subcommittee on the Automotive Industry in Canada committee  I just want to back it up a little bit. We are at the launch point for five new vehicle mandates in Canada, according to the specific plan, and that is a very beneficial thing because they will tend to grow as we go forward. So as we see these proportions go forward, one of the r

Subcommittee on the Automotive Industry in Canada committee  I can do that quickly. We certainly think that one of the outdated levies we pay, which costs us millions of dollars, I must say, is a levy that was part of the ecoAuto rebate program. We'd like to work together with the government in designing these programs to make sure they

Subcommittee on the Automotive Industry in Canada committee  I just might add, to be precisely clear, that Mr. Arnett is in a function of advising the Ontario government more specifically and directly. That is his official role. But indeed, as our president has indicated, we've met with all of these officials and are together doing extensi

Subcommittee on the Automotive Industry in Canada committee  I'll just pick up on the comment where scrappage was mentioned, for example. This is an area that General Motors Canada perhaps has more experience in than anyone else in the industry in Canada because of a relationship we've had with the Clean Air Foundation over the last severa

Industry committee  I would encourage you. One thing that we found particularly rewarding is we developed this model in Canada of clusters of collaborative research. Our friends at RIM down in the Kitchener area came to us and said we had some pretty good ideas they could build on. We frankly were b

Industry committee  We have a unique facility amongst the auto industry in Canada, right here in Oshawa. It's our Canadian Engineering Centre, just down the street. In that centre we do a full range of activities for design engineering for vehicles. To put it simply, when you come through and see

Industry committee  I can certainly jump in. As I said in my remarks, the reality is that there are jurisdictions around the world that are dying to get large-scale manufacturing investments, because of the job flowthrough, the contingent jobs, and industry that comes from the supply chain. The f

Industry committee  I would suggest one thing. When I last visited the Canadian embassy in Washington, one thing that I thought was an impressive, results-oriented initiative was a sophisticated understanding of Canadian businesses that resides in the United States. They talk with congressional repr

Industry committee  We would love a matching incentive in the marketplace, and it would make a great difference.

Industry committee  It's a bit of a two-way street, in that we are concerned about foreign jurisdictions copying our products, intellectual property theft, etc., and it is a very severe problem. I think we have to focus on what we can control, and enforcement of the types of regulations we have here

Industry committee  In a nutshell, there are two forms of emissions that are particularly relevant for automobiles. There are smog-causing emissions, and there are greenhouse gas emissions. On smog-causing emissions, since the removal of lead from gasoline, we've seen new automobiles remove smog-cau

Industry committee  I might add this. Over the next two years, as we bring forward this new automotive centre of excellence, one of our great objectives in this venture as General Motors is to do just what you're talking about and let people know about it. We have a very self-interested reason. Our

Industry committee  Very quickly, I think we do as much collaborative research with universities right across the country as any company in Canada. We know the kinds of products we need to build. We have to have the wisdom as well to open our ears and listen to people with better ideas. And that's t

Industry committee  I was just going to add: kudos to UOIT. We are delighted that this university has been the first in Canada to create a degree in automotive engineering; ironically, with all of our history in the automotive industry in manufacturing vehicles, UOIT is the first to create this degr