I am very pleased to be here today to address such an impressive gathering of American and Canadian entrepreneurs. I want to thank the Canadian and American Chambers of Commerce for inviting me to speak today.
I am also very pleased to be here with my colleague, Secretary Gutierrez, with whom I have had the pleasure to work on the Security and Prosperity Partnership and other matters. Since my appointment as Minister of Industry, I have had the pleasure to meet Secretary Gutierrez in August in Montebello, and I am very pleased to say that we share the same objectives and that we are both focused on results, not process.
And I have to thank Daniel Christman, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, both for hosting today and for his work with the U.S. North American Competitiveness Council, or NACC.
It is an exciting time to be Canada's Minister of Industry. Things are going well for Canada.
Over the past year and a half, our government has reduced both corporate and personal taxes. We are running a budgetary surplus. We continue to reduce the national debt. We have 33-year-low unemployment rates. We have an enviable inflation record. We have solid GDP growth rates that analysts say will continue into the future.
As I say, things look good, and our government is determined to create the kind of business environment that will make things even better. We know that prosperity is not created by governments. A government's job is to put in place conditions that encourage entrepreneurship and innovation. It is the private sector's role to innovate, take risks, and create wealth in a way that benefits the entire society.
Our government takes the issue of our economic competitiveness very seriously. We have named a panel of five distinguished Canadian business leaders to examine our competition policies and our policies that affect investment in our economy.
Earlier today, the panel released its discussion paper, and panel members are seeking input from interested parties on how to create the conditions that will allow Canadian firms to succeed and our country to prosper in our global economy. We have asked them to provide us with their recommendations by June, and we are very much looking forward to their report.
The Government of Canada is committed to providing effective economic leadership for a prosperous future and to further strengthen the Canadian economy through our long-term economic plan, Advantage Canada, and through our Science and Technology Strategy.
We are shaping our vision of Canada's long-term prosperity within the context of NAFTA.
The North American Free Trade Agreement — child of the Canada‑U.S. Free Trade Agreement conceived by former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney — has provided a huge boost to the economies of Canada, the United States and Mexico.
Through NAFTA, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico have formed one of the world's largest free-trade areas. This has helped double trilateral merchandise trade from pre-NAFTA levels to $958 billion in 2006. Obviously, this boost has contributed significantly to economic growth and increased standards of living in all three countries.
We know that NAFTA was a success — not only are our economies highly integrated, but the quality of life of our citizens has improved as a result.
So, we need to build on the success of NAFTA. We need to ensure that Canadian firms can use the North American platform to compete here. We need to maximize the capacity of the private sector to compete globally in the face of rising competition from countries such as China and India.
But while we look to expand trade, we must bear in mind the new realities we all face.
Since September 11, 2001, we have taken measures to better secure North America. Since 9/11, the Canadian government has invested almost $10 billion into improving security.
However, security needs must be balanced with the fluid movement of goods and people across Canada-U.S. borders, because the quality of life of too many Americans and Canadians depends on it.
In the global marketplace, commerce and the components that make up commerce need to flow. They must flow just in time to reach the right point at the right moment. I can assure you that “flowing” isn't the word that came to mind as I sat in the cab of an idling transport truck, waiting in line to cross the Ambassador Bridge at Windsor–Detroit just a few weeks ago.
As you know, the Ambassador Bridge is the world's busiest commercial crossing. It links Michigan and Ontario — the two most important contributors to the North American auto industry. I've been told that a car — or at least its parts — travels across the border several times while being built. This industry, and many others, depends on just-in-time delivery.
According to the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, delays at the border are costing the Ontario and U.S. economies $13.6 billion annually — 62 percent of that cost is to American companies.
What we need to keep in mind is this: if it is bad for Ontario, it is bad for Michigan — and Florida and California. Our trade relationship is worth approximately $1.9 billion per day. And more than 300 000 people cross our shared border every day.
Security should be trade's partner, and vice versa.
I believe that it is incumbent upon the governments of Canada and the United States to continue to cooperate to balance physical security with economic opportunity.
In the just-in-time manufacturing world we live in, we cannot burden the supply chain with unnecessary delays, added costs or other factors that undermine productivity. We ought to remind ourselves that we are not just selling goods and services to each other. Increasingly, we are making goods and performing services together.
And I believe that more people with a stake in this issue are going to have to get involved in showing just how important it is to have borders that are both smart and secure. To paraphrase Canada's Ambassador Wilson, our borders should not choke the goose that laid the golden egg.
As I said earlier, increased trade is an important part of making North America a competitive platform in the global marketplace. None of our countries can afford to lose whatever advantages we possess.
We have made tremendous progress in moving toward smarter, more secure borders. But much more needs to be done, and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, can be an enabler in getting us to where we need to be.
This partnership is an important tool for encouraging Canadian and American legislators and officials to balance opportunity and security — to respond to our physical and economic challenges with prudence and with smarts. I appreciate the work that the NACC has contributed to this.
The SPP, as you know, was launched in March 2005 as a trilateral effort to increase security and enhance prosperity across North America. The belief at the core of this initiative is that Canada, the United States and Mexico must cooperate to ensure that security and economic prosperity reinforce one another, rather than hamstring one another.
This mechanism can ensure that North America is the safest and best place for people to live in and do business. It includes ambitious security and prosperity programs to keep our borders closed to terrorism — yet open to trade.
When they met in Montebello in August, the leaders of Canada, the United States and Mexico identified five priority areas:
- competitiveness;
- food and product safety;
- sustainable energy and environment;
- smart and secure borders; and
- emergency management and preparedness.
Making major advances in these areas is going to require a lot of insight and energy from governments, from the business community, and from the citizens of all three countries.
One thing both governments and the private sector have to do is demystify the SPP for the public. Some people see it as some kind of a vehicle for continental integration, as a kind of blueprint for a European-style union, which isn't the point at all.
The objective of the SPP is both to advance security and remove challenges that undermine North American prosperity — our prosperity. Jammed borders, broken supply chains and reduced tourism can quickly lead to lost jobs.
Ordinary Canadians and Americans can identify with these issues. If we help our citizens understand that the SPP has been created to help reduce these very real challenges, then it is going to be known as a partnership that improved our collective wealth, wellness and well-being. I believe that the NACC and the private sector can play an important role in getting these points across.
If we fail to explain the partnership's objectives and benefits, then it isn't likely to be very useful in meeting all these challenges to our prosperity.
My government will play its part in improving communications and enhancing outreach. We will play our part in explaining, for instance, why and how delays at borders and differences in regulations have cumulative impacts that affect our firms and, ultimately, our citizens.
We will play our part in explaining the need for regulatory cooperation to deal with problems that negatively affect our economic partnership, while at the same time protecting health, safety and the environment.
However, we are also calling on the private sector to do its part in explaining to employees, to unions and to citizens what needs to be done to knock down some of the barriers to prosperity that threaten our three countries. We need your help in getting people to understand:
- why reducing border wait times translates into faster access to consumer products; or
- why improving intellectual property rights means more safety for consumers; or
- why harmonizing regulations will mean better safety and environmental standards as well as better business efficiencies.
The more that everyday Americans, Canadians and Mexicans understand these kinds of issues, the more they will realize that the SPP was put in place to improve their quality of life.
None of us — not governments, not entrepreneurs, not everyday Americans and Canadians and Mexicans — can afford to be timid about searching for solutions to the problems that stand in the way of our joint security and prosperity.
As Prime Minister Harper said to the Council on Foreign Relations on September 25 in New York, “It is security and prosperity that bind our two countries.” Without the “and,” we won't have either.
I hope you all agree.
Thank you.