Thank you, Mr. Chair.
If the Government of Canada is satisfied with the agreement it has signed with the various companies that are setting up in Canada, and is respectful of that agreement, I see no problem with the fact that the contracts that have been signed include provisions on jobs created, on the proportion of jobs held by Canadians. However, all the information contained in these contracts must be revealed in a very transparent way to the committee and to the Canadian public as a whole, so that everyone can verify whether these jobs are indeed jobs for Canadians. As my colleague just asked, are these jobs for Canadians or jobs subsidized by Canadians but going to North Koreans or other foreigners?
I'm in business. My riding, like Mr. Sorbara's, has several manufacturing companies. When we buy equipment, it's perfectly normal for foreign workers to come and install it or provide training. However, we're talking about a company that will employ 2,500 people, and it seems possible that 1,600 people will come from abroad to install equipment and provide training in this plant. If this is the case, we need to hear from the minister, the company's management and representatives of all the stakeholders as to how long these employees will be based in Windsor. What we understood from the beginning was that the government's goal was to create jobs for Canadians in Canada.
A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.
The situation will eventually be the same in Quebec. As the saying goes, “What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.”
Mr. Sorbara, you're right. Since Northvolt is a Swedish company, there are bound to be Swedes coming to work in Canada for a while. Will they require employees to speak French, English and even Swedish when they open positions? Will these positions be permanent or temporary? Will these people coming to install equipment be on the job for six months or some other period?
The company has 30 years' experience in battery manufacturing plants in South Korea. I imagine it won't take 30 years to get this equipment up and running in Canada, and for production and productivity to be optimal. I imagine it will take some time for this equipment to be installed and operational, and for staff to be trained. If that's the case, let's hear it. That's what transparency is all about.
In 2015, the Prime Minister said very clearly that he was going to form the most transparent government in Canadian history. I'm sorry to say that the complete opposite is happening.
The parliamentary secretary comes here and says that the Conservatives don't have a plan for the environment and that they're afraid of these investments. It's completely stupid to say things like that. In the history of Canada, the Conservative government has created the most free trade agreements. It has developed the Canada we live in today. What we've had for the past eight years is debt. I'm reading what's happening in the House of Commons. They've just said that this Liberal government has no objective for balancing the budget over the next ten years. There's something that isn't working and never will.
To get back to the motion and the contracts we're looking at, we need to make sure we get the information the government has relied on. We need to have access to it in a transparent way. If it's true that 1,600 South Korean workers will be coming to work in Canada, we need to make sure that these are temporary jobs to avoid subsidizing permanent jobs for foreign workers in Canada.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.