International Trade committee  That's a great question, and I think it's something that we're doing all the time, highlighting which American companies we need to go after. We have a very strong relationship across the border with the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce and with the Detroit Economic Growth Co

International Trade committee  On these, one can never communicate enough. I find that many times, when somebody's looking at new markets, it is very overwhelming. The country is new, the rules are different and the culture is different. It becomes very overwhelming for small businesses to really venture into

International Trade committee  We do have small companies from our region that have been successful but these are not actually small. These are probably medium-sized businesses. As I said, it's very challenging for the small businesses to access the services and the programs, primarily because of the threshold

International Trade committee  Tracey, you know in the region there are a lot of small businesses and many of them are keen to export to U.S. markets, so there's always an area of interest for us to find opportunities to export through programs and through any other assistance we can leverage. Having said tha

International Trade committee  You've pointed out that this is really an issue here. I would say it's not necessarily only for women. This goes for pretty much every young entrepreneur, all those who are coming in through the system. We have a group of women entrepreneurs who are affiliated with the chamber of

International Trade committee  That's a very important point. As I mentioned, we are a region that exists primarily because we export a significant amount of what we produce, be it fresh produce or what we manufacture, which is exported mostly to the U.S. Almost 85% to 90% of what we make and produce here is e

International Trade committee  That's correct. These are all in the manufacturing sector, and 90% of them are export-oriented. Roughly 900 of these are exporting largely to the U.S., and to other countries as well.

International Trade committee  It's a good question. I would say roughly between 50 to 80.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, committee members. It's a pleasure to join you through video conference. Thanks for the opportunity to present. Today, I'm presenting on behalf of the Windsor-Essex region, from a perspective related to federal government support for the inte