Finance committee  My name is Jim Quick and I am the president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada. I am pleased to be here today to present some urgent challenges facing the aerospace industry in Canada. Before I do that, let me give you an overview of the impact of the aeros

Finance committee  Yes, that is the understanding, Mr. Chair. What we've done with regard to technology demonstrators...we're saying to the government that we would like to share the cost of a technology demonstrator program. To give you a bit of understanding of it, when we look at technology an

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, I've brought a colleague with me, Maryse Harvey, who is our SR and ED expert. Would I be permitted to allow her to answer the SR and ED questions?

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and honourable members. The Canadian aerospace industry is the fifth largest aerospace industry in the world. It's made up of over 700 Canadian companies coming from every province and every region of the country. We are responsible for employing roughly

International Trade committee  In my view, they're doing it by responding to David Emerson. One of David's recommendations was to create a national supply chain initiative. The government is working with us right now to work out what the final details of that national initiative will look like. This is real

International Trade committee  When you look at the different elements of the GMAP, things like free trade agreements do have a positive impact on small and medium-sized enterprises. They open up a market for them that they traditionally would not have. I think that would be one of the direct things. The emph

International Trade committee  Well, we not only have individual member plans, but we also have an industry plan. We have a market access, market development, strategy that looks at how we're going to deal with existing mature markets and continue to have the market share that we require. Then we look at emerg

International Trade committee  No, not really. We develop a plan based on the greater good of the whole of the Canadian industry. There may be a company in British Columbia or Manitoba that has an interest in Latin America. Somebody in Montreal doesn't have that interest in Latin America, but they have their i

International Trade committee  Yes, I do.

International Trade committee  Actually, sometimes they'll use it in the same way, which is, “Can you help us connect? Here's our capacity and here are our capabilities. Is there somebody in that jurisdiction that needs that capacity?”

International Trade committee  Yes, they would have staff who would work specifically in those areas, but probably their main point of contact, or a contact, would be through a trade commissioner.

International Trade committee  Absolutely. Normally a small company would call me and say, “Jim, I have an interest in whatever country. Can you help me connect with somebody?” Our first step would be...trade commissioner.

International Trade committee  Our exports are growing. In terms of the United States, we still export about 50% of what we produce into the United States. About 25% goes into Europe. That number has been relatively static. Where we're seeing big increases in exportability, it is in emerging markets like Asi

International Trade committee  It compares well with our competitors, but it depends on the jurisdiction you're talking about. When you talk about mature jurisdictions like the EU and the United States, we certainly do compare well. When you talk about emerging economies and new entries like Russia and China

International Trade committee  You enter into bilateral agreements for two reasons, really. One is if there is somebody who currently has an agreement, then you're levelling the playing field for yourself. The second reason is if somebody doesn't have an agreement there, you're getting yourself an advantage.