Yes.
Evidence of meeting #13 for International Trade in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was craft.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #13 for International Trade in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was craft.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
Would those sales include the ones you talked about--Scotland, Finland, and the U.K.--or are those prospects at this point?
11:40 a.m.
President, Domestic Sales (Canada), ARKTOS Developments Ltd
They're a little bit far out yet. That's the other thing that's a problem for us in planning. You think it's a long way out and then suddenly they need them. In two months it has to be there, and there are all sorts of problems.
I have a father who's 99 years old and I call him every Sunday and he always asks me which one is going to go first. It could be Russia. It could be Brazil. I actually think Brazil is going to be the next market--they say.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
Okay. Let's focus on the CETA agreement. That's the purpose of our discussion here. How would that have an impact on your company? You've talked about reducing tariffs. To what degree are those tariffs a barrier to your sales right now?
11:45 a.m.
President, Domestic Sales (Canada), ARKTOS Developments Ltd
Right now we've been sheltered from it, I have to admit, by the consortium, because I sell to the consortium, and funds, progress payments, come at certain stages of production out of Amsterdam. Their buyers have to do the battle with Kazakhstan to move this particular thing.
What we're trying to do now is to work directly, not through a consortium or an oil company. That's our initiative right now.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
Would a CETA agreement give you an opportunity to have your own presence and not have to go through brokers?
11:45 a.m.
President, Domestic Sales (Canada), ARKTOS Developments Ltd
Absolutely. Yes.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
Okay. You also talked about IP protection. What impact would a trade agreement with the EU have on your protecting the patents that you have on your product?
11:45 a.m.
President, Domestic Sales (Canada), ARKTOS Developments Ltd
In this meeting here I can be quite honest. Most of the patents are getting very long in the tooth and we don't have a lot of patent protection, which makes it even more important. For instance, in the Soviet Union they want to buy one or two craft and you know very well that they could be a problem. It's the same with China. We're always having to protect know-how, which isn't personally patented.
We have some patents left, but they are U.S. patents. To patent something in every country, it would take most of our revenue just to deal with patents.
I'm hoping that the agreement will have something in it that will protect companies on both sides, so that there isn't flagrant cheating and stealing of things. I think it will be much better when there's an agreement. As I understand it, and I'm not an expert, I think that IP protection is one of the things that comes out of a proper agreement between the EU and Canada, I hope.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
Do you think the prospects you're looking at in Scotland, Finland, and the U.K. would feel more comfortable dealing with a Canadian company if there were this kind of an agreement in place?
11:45 a.m.
President, Domestic Sales (Canada), ARKTOS Developments Ltd
I think so. I think the U.K. is probably one of the closer ones, with its problem of the Thames. They have a specific problem. There are all these little streets in the city of London, and they can't get big fire trucks in, whereas they can get up and down the river, and they do it with fireboats. The problem is when the tide's out they have long stretches of mud and they can't get across it, whereas we can drive up and--
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
How many of these products do you typically make in a year?
11:45 a.m.
President, Domestic Sales (Canada), ARKTOS Developments Ltd
“Typically” as a word is not very good, because the most we've built is six. One was built for Kazakhstan when we had the very high level.
I think if one averages it out, it's about one and a half craft a year that we've built, but now there are two or three different potentials for several craft. In those days a craft was about a million dollars. Now some of the craft that we're quoting are over $5 million because they have so many extra pieces of equipment and they're bigger.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
So every craft is designed to the needs of the customer. It's a specialized product.
11:45 a.m.
President, Domestic Sales (Canada), ARKTOS Developments Ltd
Yes.... Well, not designed to them. There is a basic craft that we build. It's the additional bits that are put on it that are special. For instance, in oil spill response, we have to have cranes and other things to run some of their equipment.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
Looking at your website, I'm fascinated by the photos you have of the product. It's hard, on a scale size, to determine how many people it can carry. Can you give us an idea of its capacity?
11:45 a.m.
President, Domestic Sales (Canada), ARKTOS Developments Ltd
Absolutely. Our craft approved by the U.S. Coast Guard, which is the product we have sold the most of, has a capacity of 52 people. The one we're selling right now into Gazprom is 75, but they are bigger seats. If we have the ordinary IMO seating plan—we've talked about IMO—there could be 103 people. That's a self-righting, double-decker craft. So 103 is the biggest we have on designs people have talked about.
11:45 a.m.
NDP
Raymond Côté NDP Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I thank the witnesses for being here. My questions will be addressed to Mr. Fisker.
I must say, sir, that I found it interesting to hear you speak about transparency a little earlier.The tools we have to do our work in committee obviously include a cost-benefit assessment of a closer economic partnership between the European Union and Canada, which sets out ballpark figures. From these figures, we can extrapolate potential economic spin-offs of $1,000 per family, among other things. Of course, these are very simplistic extrapolations. You must admit that such an increase in economic activity will not profit everyone equally, on the contrary. However, it is interesting, nevertheless. Moreover, this assessment is based on a totally open market, a complete opening up of markets.
Given the current state of negotiations, do you think we may see far smaller spin-offs than those forecast in this evaluation?
11:50 a.m.
Chair, Danish Canadian Chamber of Commerce, EUCOCIT Board Director representing Denmark, European Union Chamber of Commerce in Toronto (EUCOCIT)
I have to admit I am not familiar with the study. You're saying there is a spin-off of about $1,000 per individual.
11:50 a.m.
Chair, Danish Canadian Chamber of Commerce, EUCOCIT Board Director representing Denmark, European Union Chamber of Commerce in Toronto (EUCOCIT)
That's per family, okay.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
It may be an unfair question. I mean, you can pose a question, but his focus would be more the European side rather than the Canadian side. It's probably an unfair question to him. Nonetheless, go ahead and ask him another one.