Thank you, Mr. chair.
I would like to come back to the issue of a defence industrial policy. I have before me a document titled “The Report of the CADSI Marine Industries Working Group” which contains some interesting things. In your own report that you've tabled today, you did not try to identify the possible architecture of an industrial policy. However, in the document I have just referred to, from the Marine Industries Working Group, you went much further in defining your specifications and your vision of a marine industrial strategy.
Let me read to you what struck me in this report. Unfortunately, I will have to read it in English:
“That Government establish a Marine Industrial Strategy that maximizes the direct participation of Canadian Marine Industries in the design, build, and support of government ships by requiring that, in addition to ship construction, the following critical functions be carried out in Canada by Canadian companies: Prime Contractor, Project Management, Platform and Mission System Integration, Management and Control of Ship Design, and In-Service Support.”
I would like to know what are your ideas relating to the marine sector. Is that how you see a future defence industrial policy?
Let me explain myself. I believe that the Marine group has the required expertise in Canada to do what you expect. However, do we also have the required expertise in the aviation field? I do not think so.
If you are in favour of an industrial policy, would you want it to be structured on the basis of the present defence environments? Do you go as far as saying that the industrial policy, apart from basic principles, would apply differently to the Navy, to the Army and to the Air Force? Would you go that far? One cannot build a broad industrial policy based on basic principles only. One has to take account of what Canadians can and cannot do. We cannot ask Canadians to build a C-17 from A to Z for strategic transport since we do not have that capacity.
In your thinking, would this industrial policy be as refined as taking account of each environment separately? If not, how do you see it being developed?