International Trade committee  If I may, I would really encourage you, particularly with regard to your business community and your constituency, to tell them to get in touch with our missions in the U.S. We're working very hard, particularly at this time, to look at where the opportunities lie in this stimulu

International Trade committee  Oh, yes. I'm sorry. It's my Irish background, I apologize.

International Trade committee  I was going to say it's my Maritime background.

International Trade committee  I very much appreciate your comments this morning on WHTI. Frankly, as I'm sure is obvious by now, I am not a WHTI expert. But what I'm hearing from you loud and clear is a great concern about the June 1 deadline. I will take it upon myself, Mr. Chair, to go back to the respons

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  I will speak to other people in our department who work more closely on this subject and get back to you. When I did discuss this with them yesterday, my understanding was that they were hearing from their U.S. counterparts that the June 1 deadline was firm; that the U.S. felt c

International Trade committee  I'm sorry, what was...?

International Trade committee  The comment I'd make is that you are partners and neighbours in good times and in hard times. These are hard times for everybody. At the same time, because we've been partners and neighbours, we do have a very integrated economy, there's no question. We have integrated sectors an

International Trade committee  At this stage of the game, I think what we're monitoring very carefully is the uptake of passports. We're in close discussion with our business associations, with our business communities—you mentioned Perrin Beatty—with the Canadian Manufacturers' Association and others, to make

International Trade committee  Oh, absolutely. That's what we're monitoring as well.

International Trade committee  That has been part of the discussions with the U.S. Again, it's just one of the options we're looking at. At this stage of the game, we're trying to work through the specific issues we have on the border. I think we've been very successful in doing that over the last couple of ye

International Trade committee  Certainly. On all these issues, at the political level and the administrative level--anything having to do with the U.S.--there is always a high level of concern, because our relationship, our partnership is so important. It's part of the reason we have the extensive network in t

International Trade committee  On this one specifically, we've had a fair bit of experience in the last couple of years on the WHTI in terms of the air implementation. We went through an adjustment period there, which we had to deal with. On the land implementation, we worked very hard, again with our interl

International Trade committee  The border issue has been, obviously, a very important one for our department and other departments throughout the Government of Canada. We've been working very closely with DHS and other interlocutors in the U.S. In terms of commenting on the change between the previous and th

International Trade committee  Then you're quite right; it is for product promotion.