Industry committee  Thanks very much, Mr. Chairman. My name is Jay Myers. I'm the senior vice-president and chief economist with Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters. I'm delighted to be able to come today and speak about the current status of Canada's manufacturing sector and some of the challenges

Industry committee  I think there's another factor here as well, apart from the regional issue, which is very important. One of the common factors that we see associated with the job closures so far is overcapacity in that particular product sector. In just about every major closure that I know of,

Industry committee  I think we need a more common strategy as well, though. As we were travelling across the country talking to manufacturers in communities, everywhere we went we were told the business was different, that the communities were different, that “we're unique”. Every business sees the

Industry committee  Maybe I could start off. If you don't have investment you don't have innovation, you don't have employment, and you don't have a successful business. If you don't have investment you don't have the ability of small companies to grow into medium-sized companies or to manage the gr

Industry committee  I'd like to start with the international trade agreements. In this deck, one of the slides a little to the back shows some of the constraints in export development. The trade barriers, or the constraints on our ability to do business internationally, are to some extent constrai

Industry committee  Let me start off. I think the uncertainty around the energy market is one of the big factors driving volatility. If there is government intervention, whether it's concerning OPEC or the amount of reserves at hand, the key objective is to diminish that uncertainty. That's key; tha

Industry committee  We should certainly contest those governments that do it. It is a subsidy. It is certainly not something that is going to assist companies in the long term in being competitive. There are other ways of assisting industry and making those adjustments—part of what we've been talkin

Industry committee  Just to make a point, if we are going to try to take that uncertainty and the speculative effect out of the market, it's a global market, and we have to do it in concert with the global players who are controlling supply, such as OPEC and the U.S.; we'd have to do it in concert w

Industry committee  This is on the trading issue, because I think it is really very important. There are three issues here: there's access to labour, there is training, and there is the type of curriculum that's being offered in our training establishments, in our schools. I think there are things t

Industry committee  Mr. Chair, may I respond to Monsieur Vincent's second question about counterfeit product and intellectual protection? This is a major challenge. For Canadian companies, it means having adequate surveillance and security systems in place. For our security systems, it means we're

Industry committee  I think one inquiry—and it's a part of what you're looking at here—that would be very useful is an inquiry into why we're not seeing more investment in the supply of refined petroleum products in Canada, and perhaps in North America. Part of the problem in the North American mark

Industry committee  I think that answers part of your first question, too, because where the problems arise in the interface between business and government is usually where you have regulators who really don't understand the business. What we've lost I think as part of that corporate memory is a tr

Industry committee  On the border issues, we're seeing a lot of regulatory programs coming, particularly from the United States, that are, frankly, in some cases, being used to protect American industry from offshore competition. I think the only way we can ensure that these don't become more burd

Industry committee  Very briefly, it is net, and it's the employment in manufacturing that I'm projecting will fall by about 100,000. We've seen 36,000 net job losses already on the books because of closures already slated for this year but which have not yet taken place. So we know there are going

Industry committee  I can tell you that if the dollar hits par in the next year and stays there, we are going to see far more closures than the 100,000 job losses. Companies are improving productivity in line with the dollar, but, frankly, a dollar over 90¢ is.... As David was saying, you've got com