House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology Tables Report

June 22, 2006

Ottawa, Ontario – Yesterday in the House of Commons, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology tabled its interim report on challenges facing the manufacturing sector.

Dave Van Kesteren, Member of Parliament for Chatham-Kent-Essex and committee member was pleased with the outcome of the report. “We were able to hear from witnesses from all areas of the manufacturing sector and then accurately express their challenges through this report,” said Van Kesteren.

The committee is examining four major challenges that are affecting the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector; the rapid acceleration of the Canadian dollar against the American dollar, rising energy costs, increasing global competition and the availability of skilled labour. Solutions proposed by witnesses covered areas such as taxation, regulation, energy, domestic and international trade and labour.

“As a committee, we wanted to table the interim report to make the government aware of the challenges facing manufacturers and their proposed solutions,” said Van Kesteren. “When the full report is released, the hope is that the committee, the government and the manufacturing sector will already be on the same page”.

Over the summer, Van Kesteren is planning to tour manufacturing plants across Southwest Ontario with fellow committee members Brian Masse (Windsor West) and Bev Shipley (Lambton-Kent-Middlesex).

The full report will be released this fall. The interim report is available by visiting
http://cmte.parl.gc.ca/cmte/CommitteePublication.aspx?SourceId=149057