International Trade committee  Small businesses are as important to me, just as they are to you. We've created 600,000 jobs in this country. We have a plan for skills to help those companies grow.

International Trade committee  They're not programs. These are jobs. There are 600,000 jobs that have been created.

International Trade committee  We have reduced—

International Trade committee  That's a really good question. In fact, that's a question that I would actually love to hear about from the work that this committee will be doing and understanding from the businesses and the stakeholders that you're going to be hearing from ultimately about whether that would a

International Trade committee  I have an expert on that here with me, and I'm going to let Chris take it, because we're doing some really great things and she'll be able to give some advice to the members.

International Trade committee  The five areas we talked about, that I illustrated, are actually with respect to exports, but of course when you talk to companies they talk to you about more than exports. Because the work here and this committee is about your work ahead and helping provide some recommendations

International Trade committee  Yes, indeed. It's not a program. It's a series of investments in.... It's a growth approach. It's the supercluster based out of Vancouver. There is expertise there in academia, along with some very robust digital companies that actually provide and offer a supply chain for the em

International Trade committee  I would say it's probably fairly consistent. It's important to know where the resources are, to know where there may already be something that might be done locally to help companies understand what they need to do to get ready for export. I've talked about the export navigator p

International Trade committee  Thank you for that question. It was great to be in Surrey, to be with the board of trade and to meet so many of the great businesses in Surrey. I think it was just a few weeks ago. I'll draw people back to Innovation Canada. I often say that it is a portal that's intended to he

International Trade committee  Indeed. I think that this is something that you can look at. Trade goes both ways.

International Trade committee  Thank you so much for your question. I'm going to begin with a general answer, which is that absolutely we care. We care about all of the small and medium-sized businesses. They are 99% and, therefore, they absolutely are the backbone of our economy. They're the job creators. Th

International Trade committee  Part of the reason I'm here and part of the reason I'm looking forward to the study that you're going to be doing is that I hope that what I will be able to get back from the committee are some recommendations about how we actually help our small and medium-sized businesses grow

International Trade committee  There is a real opportunity for our SMEs to grow, so I'm really looking forward to the work you are going to do to help me with some of those concrete recommendations on how to help our SMEs become more export ready so that they can take advantage of the new customers.

International Trade committee  To your question about the trade commissioners, I call them the greatest sales force for Canada. There are 1,000 of them around the world in 161 offices. We added $75 million to modernize and increase that capacity so there is in-country support for farmers, for all of our SMEs,

International Trade committee  Thank you so much for that. You're absolutely right. Again, that's why I have export promotion. I think the promotion part is key. We have to let our small and medium-sized businesses across the country know where the resources are. You're absolutely right in terms of the orga