Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Industry.
In 1986, the federal government asked Quebec to rationalize its shipyard activities. Ninety per cent of the rationalization of shipyards in Canada has taken place in Quebec, with 1,700 jobs lost when Versatile Vickers in Montreal and Marine Industries in Sorel closed down.
Are we to interpret Ottawa's failure to act on the issue of a ferry for the islands as a wish to finish the job started in the 1980s and to deliberately bring about the closing of the last great shipyard in Quebec?