Canada has signed a number of trade agreements. They constrict us, but they also give us business opportunities.
Take, for example, the light rail contracts that are currently being rolled out in Ontario, including right here in Ottawa. The province of Ontario made sure that those two contracts had 25% Canadian content. In both cases, the rolling stock is produced by Alstom. One assembly facility was built in Ottawa and it will handle maintenance, in conjunction with the French factories. The same happens in Toronto where a facility has also been built. In existing signed agreements, that is a minimum, in the CSN's view.
For railway transportation, the federal government did not require any minimum Canadian content. That is why VIA Rail was able to award the contract to Siemens; there was no particular concern about Canadian content in the rolling stock.
Of course, those are lost opportunities. Alstom is an international player, but it is now here in Canada. The same goes for Bombardier, which has been here for a number of years. With Alstom, they contributed to modernizing the Metro in Montreal.
Partnerships are also possible. It doesn't have to be limited to one national company versus another. There are ways to negotiate this kind of thing, but that did not happen with the VIA Rail contract.