§ Major Beamishasked the President of the Board of Trade which sections of the engineering industry have been invited to take part in the sales promoting organisation suggested by the Gilpin Engineering Mission in 1948 and accepted by the Government in April, 1949; which industrial groups have decided to take part in this scheme; which have refused to take part; which have made no decision; and by when this sales organisation will be operating.
§ Mr. H. WilsonThe Gilpin Engineering Mission suggested that appropriate sections of the engineering industry should establish full time specialist technical representatives in Canada in order196W to supplement and assist the sales promotion activities of individual firms, and that a measure of Government assistance should be available for this purpose. This latter recommendation was accepted and the assistance is being furnished by means of an Export Credits guarantee. It is available to any section of the engineering industry which wishes to adopt this method of sales promotion, and my officials (and those of the Minister of Supply), together with leading members of the Gilpin Mission themselves, have taken every opportunity of pressing it upon the attention of the whole engineering industry. I am not aware of any specific section which has refused to accept this scheme, though it is of course one of many ways for expanding exports of machinery to Canada and may not be appropriate for every section of the industry. I understand that arrangements are likely to be concluded in the near future about the appointment of such representatives by three or four sections of the industry.