Mr. Michael Byers at the Industry, Science and Technology Committee

On March 5th, 2008. See this statement in context.

March 5th, 2008 / 4:50 p.m.

Professor, Canada Research Chair (Tier One) in Global Politics and International Law, University of British Columbia

I want to come back to my analogy of the polar icebreaker that your government has so wisely committed to build, and also to the six to eight ice-strengthened patrol vessels.

First of all, you're not going to get that kind of service, that kind of public good, provided by the private market. Secondly, if you wanted to acquire those vessels at the very cheapest price, you'd actually buy them from South Korea or Finland, and I sure hope that your government has decided you're going to build them in Canada.

There are some things that cannot be reduced to a bottom line, as much as we would like them to be.

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