Madam Speaker, first of all, I wish to congratulate the hon. member on her re-election.
Just recently the B.C. Ferry Corporation of the B.C. government assigned a deal of over $500 million with a German company to build two or three ferries for the B.C. ferry system.
Many of us are outraged with that because we believe that shipbuilding companies and the workers who are attached to shipbuilding should have access to those jobs. That money then flows back to the communities, especially in the west or in the east or even in Quebec for that matter.
I have yet to hear the Conservative position on that deal. Does that party support the shipbuilding policy that was designed by the unions and the corporations?
For example, we had J.D. Irving and Buzz Hargrove singing out of the same hymn book on this. We had a policy called “Breaking Through: Canadian Shipbuilding Industry”. The government has yet to initiate that policy. Our companies and our workers are unable to get access to these tendering processes and these jobs.
I would like to have the member's personal view on what she thinks we should do in Canada to have a viable shipbuilding policy so that our workers in British Columbia, Quebec and in the Atlantic Canada region can have access to those jobs.