I am very disappointed in our fourth quarter performance. ... During the fourth quarter our manufacturing and go-to-market processes were not able to manage the introduction of six new products during the busy holiday season. This operational issue accounted for the majority of our revenue shortfall.

We are experiencing growing pains in ramping innovation through the manufacturing side of our business, which resulted in delays in the introduction of new products that were expected to have significant sales and earnings in the fourth quarter.

I am very disappointed in our fourth-quarter performance.

We had a good performance tonight out of a lot of people. We had good focus all night long.

In Ontario, job losses in manufacturing have accelerated in recent months alongside announced layoffs in the key auto sector. However, Ontario's economy is well diversified and strength in the service sector, which accounts for more than 70% of overall employment and economic activity, should support vehicle sales of about 590,000 units in 2006 - in line with the average of the past two years.

This would be an indication that activity is increasing at more than half the manufacturing firms in the survey, and another sign of growth.