Government Operations committee  Good afternoon and thank you, everyone. My name is David McHattie. I'm vice-president of institutional relations for Tenaris in Canada. I'm the board chair of the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canadians has been severe by any met

Government Operations committee  The meetings of the COVID-19 supply council didn't discuss specifics, but rather discussed broadly concepts of the desire to expand the supply chain to include Canadian businesses, and to assure that the businesses in Canada were able to get supply.

Government Operations committee  Some of the discussions were about presenting ideas like the supply hub. We were given a very good presentation from those who were developing it. We gave, where appropriate, some feedback on how that could work for us, and how we could help expand the concept to connect with as

Government Operations committee  We did sign a disclosure agreement, yes.

Government Operations committee  I don't have a position one way or the other on whether that should be published or not.

Government Operations committee  We were not involved in the details of those kinds of discussions. We were only sharing our concerns, and our interest in finding more supply, and finding ways that the supply, and the inputs for that supply, could be provided by Canadian businesses.

Government Operations committee  My personal view is that Canada benefits when we can have a greater supply at home and local. This pandemic has taught us that, while there are many benefits to globalization and having a diverse source of supply, nothing can replace having a capability at home that is secure, fl

Government Operations committee  As a member of the supply council, I was representing Canada's manufacturers and exporters. The objective was to provide some insight, some ideas and some feedback. We knew we were being asked, especially in those first challenging months, to provide fairly quick feedback on idea

Government Operations committee  Definitely, and without a doubt in those first months manufacturers moved as rapidly as they could to serve the communities where they operated, where their people were employed and where their customers were. From coast to coast, across the country, there were manufacturers ste

Government Operations committee  Yes, it has.

Government Operations committee  I believe we met once, in December.

Government Operations committee  Generally speaking, for the interventions from council members and industry, we were given the opportunity to share our insights verbally. We often went around the room, each providing ideas and feedback. We didn't submit specific lists, although that didn't prevent any one of us

Government Operations committee  I wouldn't necessarily classify it as informal, because there was a structure and an agenda, but the aspect you might term informal was that we each got the chance to speak and to share our insights verbally with Minister Anand and her team. We weren't generating formal reports,

Government Operations committee  Yes, they were included on the topic levels. The idea of doing as much as we could in Canada and finding a way was something that many members, including me, expressed an interest in.

Government Operations committee  From my perspective, Canada has strong universities, a strong infrastructure of people and ideas. What we lack sometimes in some areas is specific manufacturing capabilities, so we discussed the interest in building on where we do have strengths and expanding them to eventually b