Industry committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen. I've distributed a deck to members of the committee. You'll be glad to know I'm not going to go slide by slide; however, it does point out the impact of the appreciating Canadian dollar on Canada's manufacturing sector. This

Industry committee  To your first point, Mr. McTeague, the situation is urgent, and we have been calling on the government to implement all the recommendations in the report. I think they were all extremely good, from the tax recommendations to the issues of ensuring fair trade, borders, logistics--

Industry committee  We have much more difficulty convincing economists in the Department of Finance about this.

Industry committee  I don't think we have too much of a problem convincing people who live in communities that depend on manufacturing how important manufacturing is for those communities. In some other communities, and in larger urban centres where the contribution that manufacturing makes is not t

Industry committee  I think the fact that the industry committee has come together as a whole shows how important these issues are, how urgent they are, and how we can work together for solutions. I agree with Mr. Lazar we have to realize that at the end of the day it's up to business to make the in

Industry committee  I think that's right and it's certainly mistaken to think that the problems affecting manufacturing are not affecting other sectors of the economy. As the United Way report in Toronto pointed out, one of the reasons for the growing rate of impoverishment in Toronto is the disappe

Industry committee  I think that's right. The impact of this recent surge of the dollar has yet to be felt, and we'll see further job losses and closures. Moving forward, I think the next six to eight months are going to be critical. I'm unfortunately expecting probably as many as 50,000 job losses

Industry committee  I just wanted to correct the misperception that manufacturers weren't investing. There was $25 billion a year in new technology and in R and D in the late 1990s. This is the sector that was growing at that time and creating 650,000 new jobs. This was a sector that was making some

Industry committee  If I could answer first, dumping and subsidization of product coming in today from China and from other countries are very important issues that concern a number of sectors within the manufacturing sector. In Canada, a number of industries are affected. The recognition of what

Industry committee  I wouldn't call it a subsidy, but clearly the falling Canadian dollar had a very beneficial effect on manufacturing in Canada. It boosted manufacturing output. It made manufacturing in Canada much more attractive for investment. Throughout the 1990s we had the most rapidly growin

Industry committee  They're certainly feeling the downturn in the U.S. market in those three key areas of housing, automotive, and consumer products. Many companies are also saying that as a result of credit problems in the United States their customers are having more difficulty paying, and they're

Industry committee  I would just warn the committee members that the U.S. Fed is in a very difficult position right now. Given the credit market problems in the United States, the downturn in the U.S. economy, we likely will see the Fed funds rate fall probably by a percent over the coming year. Tha

Industry committee  --and therefore bank lending is also under pressure. In that sense a credit facility like EDC, where they guarantee bank loans for investment on the part of exporters in new technologies, is a very positive program. It would be nice to see that expanded across the supply chain fo

Industry committee  I think many companies have very specialized products and have been relying on the U.S. market for a long time. They are now in the position where they have to find other markets, so they're putting a lot more effort into new market development. It's more difficult for small comp

Industry committee  If I could refer you to this graph that shows the relationship between the appreciating dollar and employment in manufacturing, I think there's a pretty close relationship between the movement of the dollar and employment within the sector. As I was saying, we're in a situation