Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll split my time with my honourable colleague Mr. Harris.
Thank you to our witnesses.
I think it is important to be constructive and to work together. Just to clarify the record, my honourable colleague from British Columbia talked about B.C.'s fast ferries. Coming from British Columbia, I can tell you that it was one of the biggest disasters of the NDP government. Talking about disasters, then, we need to make sure that governments are working together and moving forward.
This committee discussed this agreement at great length in the 39th Parliament. I know there are some new committee members here. For the sake of those new members and just to refresh the minds of those members who are returning, there was a mention of carving out the shipbuilding industry. The U.S. does not carve out shipbuilding from its trade agreements, but what Canada has been able to do is carve out a “buy Canada” privilege.
In the 2009 budget, which is just being moved through Parliament right now, there's $175 million in there for coast guard procurements. Even more exciting is the fact that over the next 30 years, there's extensive fleet renewal for both the coast guard and the Canadian navy fleet, estimated to be--I believe the officials could verify this--about $43 billion over the next 30 years.
So it looks like there's a renaissance happening in the shipbuilding industry. There might be opportunities for your children and grandchildren, so we have to make sure that we have properly trained shipyard tradespeople and officials who can have the human resources to carry through that work as we transition through that period.
I know we just heard the trading numbers yesterday, released from Stats Canada, and concerns of where we're at as a trading nation. Canada is known as a trading country, a fair and free trading nation. We've had a good relationship with the United States, but we've fallen behind with our trade agreements with other countries, and we need to level the playing field for our industries.
My question is for the officials. Can they explain to us how they feel the European free trade agreement would maybe provide more opportunities for Canadian businesses, industries, the provinces, and Canadians in general to deepen our economic relationship with the European Union?
That's for whoever would like to answer that.