Industry committee  There's something as simple as the ability to move people in an efficient way to a location that maybe balances the cost pressures of some of our urban locations, and to draw on the talent, the spirit, and, as Mr. Deveau said, the competitive advantage of some of the rural areas.

Industry committee  A big part of Deloitte Canada's practice is focused on smaller private companies. We do serve those kinds of companies coast to coast. With respect to the topic we're discussing today, though, with the trends that we see, even for smaller companies, the need for technological sophistication, the need to be in and around other companies or other sources of talent or intellectual property and distribution channels and whatnot would tend to draw the capital and the talent from around the world to the urban centres where there's attractiveness of a different sort.

Industry committee  It may, because it's one of these emerging technologies that has the potential to have a disproportionate and exponential influence on a number of things that probably aren't obvious as we sit here today, including the ability to provide verifiable, transparent, and trustworthy transactions to facilitate agreements in a peer-to-peer way.

Industry committee  That was Deloitte.

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  It's a great question. I'm not aware of such a list. I think the various industry associations would probably have an idea of the competitive pressures, the technologies that are coming, and the attributes of the workers and the white-collar talent these companies need. Out of a discussion like that, these requirements should emerge.

Industry committee  I completely agree with that.

Industry committee  Right. Further to that, I think there's probably some onus on an external provider to provide knowledge transfer and some encouragement to be able to take that on internally. There's also the element of whether they have the confidence within the company to do it correctly and to do it consistently.

Industry committee  We do.

Industry committee  Consistent with our study, consistent with my experience, and consistent with what was said by the two presidents with whom I spoke specifically about this last week, it's talent. It's the availability and the quality of people throughout the system. It's not just people on the manufacturing floor.

Industry committee  I think there are elements of all of the above. In my view, and as I heard in my discussion with these leaders, what we are seeing is a shift in some of the skills sets. For example, 10 years ago a number of business schools in the U.S. university system created supply chain management programs.

Industry committee  I'm not aware of that situation. I personally haven't seen it and I haven't heard it come up in discussions with my colleagues or clients.

Industry committee  During my preparation last week to come here today, I sat down with two of the presidents of manufacturing clients that I'm currently working with, and they spoke quite favourably of the program. These are mid- to larger-sized manufacturing companies. To the point Mr. Deveau made, it's not always easy for some of the smaller companies to understand, to file, to follow through, to dispute.

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon. My name is Stephen Brown. I'm a consulting partner with Deloitte and, as the chairman said, I'm the leader of our consumer and industrial products practice in Canada. I have been with Deloitte for 20 years, serving Canadian, U.S., and global manufacturing clients.