Foreign Affairs committee  To add to that, I would say it's incredibly important that industry and government sit down together to figure out that process. Just to reiterate, we need that the clarity, timing and transparency and that overall process. I must say that the officials at Global Affairs have b

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. Mr. Chair, I'll still keep my remarks to five minutes even though there's some time there. It's a pleasure to be here on behalf of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada. As always, we appreciate your interest in our i

Industry committee  I would definitely hope that R and D would be a part of a sector-specific strategy, and it absolutely has to be. Again, just going back to that historic timeline that I talked about earlier with respect to the long-standing support for aerospace, starting from the defence indust

Industry committee  Again, I think it's through that overarching strategy. We just keep coming back to that. If you have the strategy in place, you can ensure that there are competitive advantages retained, which include our skilled workforce. Again, the past policy efforts of governments of all st

Industry committee  I think you have to look at the whole ecosystem. You have support for airlines, which is very important for us because, at the end of the day, they are the ones that purchase the planes that we build, and we repair the planes that they fly. That's also right down to that sector-

Industry committee  Absolutely, and again I'm not going to comment on a specific procurement and different companies bidding there, but I would agree. We've been advocating for action to again maximize defence procurement and government partnerships to drive industrial growth. There are definitely

Industry committee  Maybe just in the context of COVID-19 we see a real opportunity to use defence procurement, space procurement, as a real driver to help lead Canada out of the economic malaise that we find ourselves in with respect to COVID-19. With respect to COVID, there's a real opportunity th

Industry committee  You're absolutely right. At the end of the day, it's about the jobs that are here. When people talk about the Canadian aerospace industry, you think of planes, helicopters and satellites, but it's not that. It's the people behind it and it's the high skill and high wages that we

Industry committee  I'll start at the high level and turn it over to Mr. Chartrand. You're absolutely correct. What's missing, from our perspective, is that long-term strategy, that industry-specific support. We have companies right now that are moving workforces around, looking to where different

Industry committee  The “Vision 2025” document is very much still relevant today, and I would say even more relevant today considering everything that's been going on. I could go back and touch on a comment I made in my opening remarks about the commitment of past Parliaments to our industry, bec

Industry committee  Again, being the national industry association representing over 95% of aerospace activity in Canada, we don't usually comment on specifics when it comes to procurements that involve individual member companies and those that are going on. However, generally speaking, we have lon

Industry committee  I would echo what Ms. Benoît said. The first and foremost piece that we need is the sector strategy. It is critically important that those investments be made. When companies look at where to make investments, they're looking around the world and are looking to Canada to see wh

Industry committee  One of the real opportunities we see with the aerospace sector is exactly your point, Mr. Dreeshen, which is, how can we contribute to the economic recovery? As I mentioned in my opening remarks, with over 80% of what we produce being export related, there's a real opportunity t

Industry committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, and good afternoon everyone. It's a real pleasure to be here on behalf of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada. It's also great to have Ms. Benoît, from Aéro Montréal, here as we represent mutual members in Quebec. We work very closely together