Industry committee  I'd just add, Ms. Brunelle, that yesterday CIBC World Markets released a jobs quality report on the year 2007, reporting that the quality of jobs actually increased versus those in the previous year by a record amount not seen since 1999. In 2007, 132,000 jobs in the manufacturin

Industry committee  Just to add to Mr. Marchi's point, yes, at the WTO we need a deal. But we need to also utilize all the instruments we have at our disposal to open up markets and to promote investment from the Canadian side in all these other potential emerging markets where we could export our s

Industry committee  As chair of the Canada China Business Council.

Industry committee  Given the fact that Canada has an open economy, the manufacturing sector obviously will continue to face challenges with the current economic conditions we face. My view is that the manufacturing sector is fully capable of competing internationally, both in the United States and

International Trade committee  Mr. Chairman, the deplorable murders of trade unionists in 2002 reached as high as more than 200 individuals. Again, it's highly deplorable, but in 2007 that number had dropped to 33 trade unionists, so there's been an incredible reduction in the murder rate of trade unionists.

International Trade committee  It's just a quick comment, Mr. Cannis. The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade has made great efforts to improve their services under the auspices of their global commerce strategy, which we have strongly supported. Secondly, the Canadian Council of Chief Exec

International Trade committee  Thank you. I just want to say, Mr. Chair and Mr. Julian, the following. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives is an organization, yes, that's made up of 150 chief executives of some of Canada's largest enterprises and of chief executive officers and entrepreneurs. But one of

International Trade committee  If I may say, those are great points, sir. I just want to add that this discussion on shipbuilding has been very much a defensive discussion. There's nothing wrong with being a little more offensive in our discussion. And to Mr. Garneau's excellent question and to your comment a

International Trade committee  As well, we'd like to be able to come back in three years and argue the case for revisiting the EFTA and expanding it to include intellectual property, services, and investment provisions. We will probably have a long list to bring to this committee on making improvements and exp

International Trade committee  If I may add, Mr. Holder, we've been talking a lot about trade but we haven't talked enough about investment. We have a positive investment account with respect to the EFTA countries. We have more investment from the four EFTA countries than we have invested in those countries. A

International Trade committee  The Americans don't have a FTA with EFTA. We will have that, subject to approval, of course; and then hopefully we'll have a deal with the EU, which will make it very attractive for EU enterprises to invest in Canada as a base for a North American platform.

Foreign Affairs committee  Just as a brief additional comment to Mr. Plourde's excellent response, it seems to me that regionally—in the Pacific northwest between the provinces and states, in the U.S. midwest, in the east between Quebec and New York State and Quebec and other states—there already is tremen

Foreign Affairs committee  There is a Pacific gateway initiative that has been under way for a couple of years. It has connected the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert further north, through the Prairies and into the U.S. Midwest. There's also an Atlantic gateway initiative that is under way to develop a

International Trade committee  Mr. Cannis, this is a very important question. We do need to add that President Obama's cabinet actually has two former border leaders as senior members in his cabinet. One is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the other is Janet Napolitano. Janet Napolitano has indicated

International Trade committee  Again with respect, we had an opportunity. The Americans did suggest the idea of perimeter security in the early 2000s. We did not go down that route. At the time that idea was before us all. It was an idea we all considered. We recommended it as a business group to the governmen