Thank you, Mr. Risser.
I hope the Conservative members of the committee are listening to that, because they seem to take an ideological opposition to any “buy Canada” mechanisms.
I'd like to go on to the department representatives. We had absolutely and phenomenally disastrous trade figures yesterday.
Through you, Mr. Chair, I'll ask the departmental representatives about it.
There is a half-billion-dollar trade deficit, a structural trade deficit that's going to continue on for as long as we continue the current course of action. The biggest disaster, of course, is the decline in all manufactured value-added products. What we're exporting now, basically, is crude petroleum, raw iron ore, and raw logs. The forestry exports have collapsed. Automotive exports have collapsed.
The trade strategy of this government is an absolute disaster. Pertaining to the departments, is there any sort of interdepartmental crisis team in place to deal with these absolutely disastrous figures?
My final question to the finance department is around the import tariffs that should be levied on the ferries purchased by BC Ferries. They could have been built in British Columbia, but because the Gordon Campbell government doesn't seem to be too inclined towards job creation, they were built overseas and brought into Canada. Could you clarify that this tariff is a bill that has to be paid?