Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  The way we look at this, Mr. Lake, is that chemistry is part of the solution to a lot of issues. It could be food production. It could be the safety of your food. One company, for example, is developing the chemistry to take greenhouse gases out of stacks. Also, there are lighter

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I note that this was one of the Rajotte recommendations.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  In terms of the Rajotte report, that is number one for us. Just to give you an example, I was listening on the web when Jay mentioned yesterday that there's a coalition of 43 companies and associations in the manufacturing area. You work in Parliament and you know how hard it i

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  --so you can imagine the amount of diversity we have. There are R and D companies, service companies, and rail companies. We agreed that the number one ask of the government was this, by far. Number two, by the way, was the refundable tax issue on that R and D credit. This is a

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  As Fiona was saying, the R and D tax credit is very useful to us. We have a number of companies that benefit from it. That probably is the reason they're able to do the amount of R and D they do in the country, notwithstanding the fact that R and D generally flows to the headquar

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Most of our rail traffic is going north-south. It's not going through the ports right now. That's not to say that gateways aren't extremely important to us. We have some companies.... I think Dow has a facility in the Vancouver port that has been very important and has been affec

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Right now, we're not looking at that, but I must tell you it's very interesting that you add this insight. There are communities—Jay Myers is right—such as Sarnia and Varennes, Quebec, where considerable skill capacity essentially has had to leave the industry because of plant cl

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Well, it definitely is an issue. We're faced with the same demographic issues that Jay is faced with. Fortunately, Alberta is a good place to work. Our plants are in places such as Prentiss and Joffrey, where our labour force is extremely stable. They're attractive communities to

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  —a new set of pressures. We haven't felt that the skills issue would be the main determinant of whether upgraders happened; it would be more the tax things that Fiona mentioned, and simply the fact that the Alberta government does face quite a challenge in this area, because the

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Our industry has never advocated loan guarantees. The chemical industry has never asked for a loan guarantee, and it probably never will. However, one has to recognize that the situation faced by some sectors, like the auto sector, is, although partly their own doing, also partl

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I'm not sure I can do that for you. I think all sectors are affected. Obviously, some are more visible than others, like auto and forestry. But forestry, like us, has had continuing issues, particularly related to the softwood lumber issue with the U.S. It's hard to distinguish b

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I totally and absolutely agree. Well, just think about that. Look at the numbers. The Chinese are going up like this; all our growth's going over there. So essentially if you don't do that.... Because our business is price per pound, and a cent per pound changes where the busines

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I'm going to give you an answer that may not be as simple as you would like. Generally, the business sectors, including the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, have argued that we need some way to price carbon. That doesn't necessarily mean the carbon tax. Emissions trading,

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  There are several areas. We really don't have any energy policies in this country. We are woefully inadequate in regard to energy policy, so you have a lot of energy policy driven by environmental policy, which is not a bad thing except that it has consequences. Just as an ex

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I can make a general comment and maybe Fiona can add to it. As a trading nation, I think we're the most dependent on trade of any OECD country, so obviously protectionism doesn't help us. Our association supported free trade, in 1982, I think it was, so we were way ahead of the