Andrew did a pretty good job in overviewing where the industry is at, and I'll try to stay away from repeating what he said.
Again, thank you for having us here. Because of the short notice, we don't have anything prepared by our union, but it would like an opportunity to put together a formal presentation to this committee. Hopefully, this committee can make time for that.
I am here on behalf of the workers in the marine sector of our union to express our opposition to this agreement. Canadian shipbuilders find themselves competing for work in domestic and international markets on far from a level ground. Other governments, Norway for one, have supported their shipbuilding industries for years and have built them into powers, while Canada has not. We have had little protection, and what little protection we have left is a 25% tariff on imported vessels into Canada, which is being washed away by government daily through agreements such as this and the exemptions being negotiated with companies.
The government—in this case Minister O'Connor—has stated that the shipbuilding industry is of strategic importance to the sovereignty of this nation. And Peter MacKay, in a press release on June 7, stated that the government recognizes the challenges faced by the shipbuilding industry and is taking real action to help it in both the short term and long term, and that as a marine nation Canada needs a viable shipbuilding industry to support our sovereignty. Maxime Bernier has said the same thing in talking about a renewed approach to assist in the maintenance of domestic shipbuilding and ship repair capacity, which supports our sovereignty as a nation.
With all these statements, you'd think the government's action would be to put into place national strategies to ensure a viable shipbuilding industry, but we have seen no sign of that. What we have seen is the EFTA agreement, which we feel will further devastate the shipbuilding industry.
So I urge you to take the opportunity before us with procurement to revitalize this industry. This industry provides highly skilled jobs, often in areas of economic depression. The shipbuilding industry supports key industries such as transport, fisheries, tourism, and oil and gas—and perhaps most importantly, as Andrew pointed out, the industry is critical to the defence capabilities of Canada.
The reasons are clear for supporting the shipbuilding industry. I just think this committee and government have to find ways of doing that. As yet, we still have to see something that actually works for us.
There is a large phase-out period in this agreement, and we all recognize that is a benefit; but it's only a benefit if there is a way for us to adjust. Asking workers to adjust to a global market is unfair, because there are actually things that we cannot control. In some of the countries that we will be competing with internationally, the workers themselves are the subsidy. There are not human rights in some of these countries; there is very little health and safety. It's a totally different game that some of these countries are playing.
But to get back to this agreement, the Norwegians have built their industry into a very powerful industry.
So this EFTA deal is a bad deal for Canada. I'd love to see someone answer the question, what is Canada going to get out of this agreement? I know we're going to destroy our shipbuilding industry, a multi-billion-dollar industry in Canada. It's on its last legs now and needs a real boost. We have that opportunity in front of us, but whether we take it or not is the question.
Again, the one question I have is, what is the benefit to Canada from this agreement? The last thing I would like to ask is, will this agreement be put before Parliament, as Minister Emerson has said, for a full debate and vote?
On that note, I will close my statement. Thank you.