Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome my colleague, the Bloc Québécois international trade critic and member for Sherbrooke, and I would also like to wish him a happy new year. I was very interested in his speech—which is always the case with his speeches. I understand that the Bloc Québécois is ready to vote in favour of this agreement. I would like to ask the member a question about this.
As we know, the Davie Yards in Lévis recently shut down. Not long ago, in the business section of Le Devoir, the union president, Paul-André Brulotte, said that he did not know when the 1,100 workers who were temporarily laid off in December would return to work. During an interview he said that could not give a date for their return.
There is an economic crisis in the Quebec City area and then there is the closure of the Davie Yards. According to testimony from many people who appeared before the Standing Committee on International Trade, we know full well that this agreement will destroy shipbuilding in Canada.
My question is very simple: When it faces these facts and the 1,100 Quebeckers who lost their jobs in December, why is the Bloc Québécois willing to support this agreement?
It must be said—we saw this last year—that the Bloc Québécois voted in favour of the softwood lumber agreement, an agreement which killed thousands and thousands of jobs in Quebec. I understand what my colleague said, but I do not understand the result.
If he has serious concerns about this agreement, as we in the NDP do, why would the Bloc Québécois not vote against this agreement that cannot be amended in committee or in the House because it is a matter of confidence, as the member well knows?