Industry committee  Could I just make one additional point? We asked for the potential for the committee to look at updating your previous report. If that's not possible, I would like to stress how important it would be for the committee to re-adopt the report so we can ensure that the government co

Industry committee  I don't know that I have—

Industry committee  I'd be happy to talk to my chief economist to get you the breakdown on that. It wasn't a question I was expecting today.

Industry committee  The Canadian Chamber and our chambers across the country--through a vote--have been supporters of the harmonized tax. There have been studies that looked at which sectors will be affected positively, which sectors will be affected negatively, and what the overall impact will be.

Industry committee  Hatch is one, but that wasn't the one I was thinking of. However, Hatch is another one. The whole engineering services area is one in which Canada has some global expertise. We're well respected, and these types of free trade agreements help ensure their continued access. With

Industry committee  If you give me one second I can look that up.

Industry committee  I would add that we are facing a demographic cliff in Canada. It's coming up far faster than what we would be able to properly prepare for if we were paying the attention to it that it deserves. Yes, there will be a labour shortage, and it's one that will be prolonged and sever

Industry committee  The HST is one of the issues that, just like Parliament, is also difficult for broad groups like the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. But we have been on record for many years as supporting a harmonized sales tax. It is very clear that when you look at the economics overall, it is i

Industry committee  If I could be permitted to add to that question, Mr. Chair, the Colombia agreement is indeed important for services. There are a number of Canadian firms, service companies, that are working in Colombia, especially the services industry around the mining sector and the extractive

Industry committee  Is that for Colombia or in general?

Industry committee  Any area where we have some expertise in manufacturing there's always a service component that goes around that. As well, we have a number of companies that are Canadian-based that are services experts in the infrastructure area. There's SNC-Lavalin, for example, which is a globa

Industry committee  Thank you for that question. We do have some members who have offices in Quebec, and we would definitely welcome more participation from Quebec. As well, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce has representatives from every province and every region and we rely on them as well to help

Industry committee  I would add that currently there's about $68 billion worth of services that are exported—financial services. There's also the tourism industry, for example, which is very important. But there are massive opportunities to increase this. If you look at the U.S. numbers, for example

Industry committee  I would just add to that. The banking and insurance industries are private industries, and in other countries, especially in the banking sector, they have incurred massive layoffs. That's not the case in Canada.

Industry committee  I'll start an answer, if the Conference Board would like to add to that. The services-producing industry, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, actually has increased in 2008 by 231,000 jobs. This was largely due to a growth in professional serv