Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Transport.
The practice of foreign-flagging Canadian ships to bypass Canadian legislation has deprived Canadian sailors of jobs and the public treasury of revenues. The Minister of Finance will surely agree. Although this practice hurts Canada, some Canadian shipowners resort to it.
My question is this: How can the Minister of Transport justify the fact that two ships, the Bluenose and the Atlantic Freighter , which belong to Marine Atlantic, a company wholly owned by the Government of Canada, operate under the Bahamian flag?