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Finance committee At the moment, as I understand it, as of March of this year, it has become unfunded. It is still authorized, but it's not funded.
September 29th, 2011Committee meeting
VAdm Peter Cairns
Finance committee No, the funding at the moment in there, I believe, is around $13 million. We are asking in our submission that we should look at funding it to $20 million a year over the next five years. That's what we're asking for; that's not what it is right now. I think at the moment it's only $10 million or $12 million.
September 29th, 2011Committee meeting
VAdm Peter Cairns
Finance committee Yes, sir. Marine Atlantic is a very interesting case. The Shipbuilding Association has advocated for the national shipbuilding procurement strategy for quite some time. It looks as if we are almost there. When we made that advocacy initially, when we looked at Canadian government vessels, we included ferries like Marine Atlantic's.
September 29th, 2011Committee meeting
VAdm Peter Cairns
Finance committee Shipbuilding was excluded from the North American Free Trade Agreement, essentially because of an American regulation called the Jones Act. It states that in order to build a ship to be used within the United States, it must be built in the United States, crewed in the United States, and owned by an American.
September 29th, 2011Committee meeting
VAdm Peter Cairns
Finance committee The problem we have with Europe is that most of the countries we deal with have very mature industries. Most of these industries have been well subsidized and well funded by their governments. Now they're free traders. It's amazing to me how countries that have been given subsidies and many investments by their governments are now free traders.
September 29th, 2011Committee meeting
VAdm Peter Cairns
Finance committee Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Peter Cairns. I am the president of the Shipbuilding Association of Canada. Shipbuilding is a hot topic right now, and I am sure there is no one in this room who hasn't heard of the national shipbuilding procurement strategy. I am not going to talk about that strategy this morning but about issues that are affecting the small commercially oriented shipyards that are unlikely to be directly involved in the national shipbuilding procurement strategy.
September 29th, 2011Committee meeting
Vice-Admiral
International Trade committee Let me answer your first question first. It would be nice if we had a Jones Act.
December 13th, 2007Committee meeting
VAdm Peter Cairns
International Trade committee I know there are a lot of people in this country—not only shipbuilders but shipowners—who would appreciate that. We almost have one, to be very fair. It's called the Coasting Trade Act, and it protects those who actually operate ships in this country. But we didn't put the shipbuilders in it.
December 13th, 2007Committee meeting
VAdm Peter Cairns
International Trade committee One of the interesting things about the shipbuilding industry—and this is where we're completely different from anybody at this table—is that we're not in the WTO. We have no rules. There are no WTO rules that really apply to us. We are the last of the wild west shootouts. Countries and governments can do any darn thing they want; there are no real regulations.
December 13th, 2007Committee meeting
VAdm Peter Cairns
International Trade committee So have we, actually, in shipbuilding. We've been well represented by our negotiators, actually. I think the problem is that we just have a very big gap to bridge.
December 13th, 2007Committee meeting
VAdm Peter Cairns
International Trade committee Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to speak with you today about the proposed Canada-Korea free trade agreement. My remarks are based on the assumption that free trade must also be fair trade. This is a key issue for shipbuilders, because up until now we have seen little evidence of that in our sector.
December 13th, 2007Committee meeting
Vice-Admiral