Thank you for that.
Yes, you're right. When we get these bills early in the draw, or when people use motions, sometimes motions and even private members' bills are used for partisan reasons. This bill is non-partisan. It doesn't matter what party you're from or what part or region of the country you're from. It's a concept that I think we can all get behind, because it doesn't benefit one region over another.
I did have a study done on the benefits of interoperability, with an overview of the western perspective, but when we looked at it, we also looked at the financial implications that it has not just for Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba, but also for Ontario and Quebec. We looked at where all these small manufacturing companies exist. They're all across the country.
When you're looking at agricultural manufacturing companies, there are physically more of them in Ontario per capita. Most are in the Prairies, for sure, but there are more companies in existence in Ontario. There are some in existence in Quebec. There are some—not very many—in existence in the Atlantic provinces as well.
When you look at how big and vast agriculture is, for example, you see that it touches every province and every province uses it. For this bill, again, I come at it from an agricultural perspective, so it has that benefit for ag, but it's going to have that benefit whether you're in the fishery, in forestry or in mining. The benefits are there. For technology in general, the benefits are going to be there and realized with this bill.
We tried to design it in a way so that it didn't matter what party you're from, you could support it, because at the end of the day, this bill is about trying to do what's right not just for one industry but for all of industry and for the entire country. It's born from people who live in my riding, but at the end of the day, it's geared towards the entire country.
I view it as a nation-building project, right? When you look at manufacturing products in Saskatchewan, you see that we have a use for Quebec aluminum and we have a use for components that are manufactured in the Windsor area and are going to be used to build the greater piece that you're going to be attaching. This is a good way and, post COVID as well, this is a regulation that's going to help to drive the economy back into full force and help us fulfill the potential we have here in Canada for a more active and robust manufacturing sector. This helps us to support the key industries we have in this country.