Mr. Speaker, on this opposition day, the debate is on a subject chosen by the Bloc Quebecois, and I must say I have always had a special interest in national defence.
There are a number of reasons why that is so, the main one being that in my riding, we have an important entity that reports to the Department of National Defence and I am, of course, referring to the Bagotville Base.
The base is a major employer in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean area. Bagotville provides employment for more than 1,250 military personnel and 280 civilians.
That alone makes it a major economic asset to a region that, need I say it again, has the highest unemployment rate in Canada.
I am sure that the same could be said of other regions in Canada, since there are always substantial economic spinoffs for a region where a base is located. Many small industries gravitate around the base itself and have often developed expertise in the defence industry.
Cutting or downsizing at that level does not only affect National Defence as such, it also affects small businesses in the vicinity. There is cause for alarm when the federal government decides to close part or all of its military infrastructures, since residents then have to adjust their lives accordingly.
On February 22, 1994, the Minister of National Defence in this government sent me the following letter, and I will read two extracts: "I regret to announce that the project to develop an air to ground weapons range for CFB Bagotville in your riding has been cancelled".
The most important part of the letter is this: "Although we considered the importance of maintaining the balance of economic and regional benefits, the decisive factor in making these difficult decisions is as follows: they must be based on military and economic considerations".
The letter says: "National Defence will work closely with other departments and regional development agencies that will help communities plan for the future".
You may recall that subsequently, on July 10, 1995, the Minister of National Defence replied as follows: "There are plans to cut 305 military and 15 civilian positions in the 3rd Squadron at CFB Bagotville. However, this information is only an estimate and further changes may be made subsequently". That probably means additional cuts.
What surprises me is that following these cutbacks, the Department of National Defence says it will work in close co-operation with other government agencies to help these communities plan their future. Well, despite the cuts in my area, we have not seen and I have not sensed any willingness on the part of other departments to get involved to deal with certain situations. Certainly not. And of course a number of bills have been tabled in the House, starting with the bill to establish the Department of Human Resources Development, the department that is closing employment centres. Employment centres are being closed while the unemployment rate goes up.
We also have trouble retraining or providing new kinds of training for people who have been laid off, and I am talking about both the military and civilians.
We must face the federal government's new choices. I think that the government has forgotten that the economic development of many communities is based on defence. When the federal government decides to leave a region or change its equipment, it should act a little more responsibly.
In the area of defence, a so-called responsible government should focus on conversion. As my Bloc colleague said earlier, the aerospace industry is one of the areas best suited for conversion. Yet, it seems that this sector remains one of the most fragile in Canada, at a time when several other countries have opted for conversion.
The governments of all countries with significant aerospace industries actively support this sector. One only has to think of companies like General Dynamics in the U.S., which grew because it received defence contracts from the U.S. government. The governments of all these countries put in place major conversion programs.
We, in Quebec, have expertise allowing us to believe in this reality. We have engineering firms, architectural firms, trained technicians who are ready to face these new challenges. In most cases, the federal government's policy on projects requiring new infrastructures is to go ahead without calling for tenders.
I am going to tell you something. Last week, the commander of CFB Bagotville and I inaugurated a $2.8 million arena in my riding. When this project was on the table, architectural and engineering firms from outside Quebec were invited to prepare plans and specifications, when we, in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, have construction firms that can build massive dams like the James Bay project. Yet, they are incapable of building a small arena for some 200 to 300 people, an arena which has, of course, become very important for the military. It is very important.
The question is not whether or not to have an arena, but rather who will be the builders, architects and engineers involved. After running around here, there and everywhere in various departments, I managed to obtain that a firm from our area would at least be allowed to submit a bit. Finally. Many thanks to the government employee who told me: "All right, Mr. Fillion, CEGERGO will be invited to bid for building the arena".
It was not a matter of favouring this particular firm over another, but a matter of placing this firm on an equal footing, to at least give the chance to a firm that is paying taxes to Canada and employing hundreds of people to bid on an arena project.
The defence department, through its construction engineering branch or what not, said the firm would be allowed to bid because it had done some work in James Bay and built a 20-storey building in Montreal. I guess they felt it had some credibility, so they decided to accept it as a contender. Would you believe that the contract, a turnkey contract, was eventually awarded to this very firm, CEGERGO. Turnkey means that everything was run from the office, using expertise from my region.
By going to tender, we give our regions a chance to develop. In contracting however, it is important that everyone be given a chance to compete. I am sure that we end up saving money this way.
In the United States, between $4 billion and $6 billion is allocated to conversion assistance in the Clinton plan. Of course, their population is larger. In Europe also larger sums are invested in this area. When you make an effort to look around and see what is going on outside of Canada, you realize that, more and more, Canada's track record as far as its aerospace industry is concerned is not great.
In Canada, funding for programs designed to help the Canadian defence industry was steadily cut year after year. We are told that a great deal of streamlining is happening in terms of cuts to defence spending, but at the same time people are left jobless. That is not important. It is not important that, at some point, communities find themselves in bad shape. However, they do not realize that, even though cuts are being made in the defence budget, as well as in other departments, Canadians have an increasingly heavier tax burden. Try to make some sense out of that.
In the late 1980's, the budget was somewhere around $300 million. This year, in 1995-96, it is only $102 million and it is constantly diminishing. The government does not care at all about those who relied on the defence industry. As you know, the aerospace industry plays a vital role in Quebec's economy. That is a reality which we repeatedly stressed in this House. That industry is important for many Quebecers, since the salaries paid in that sector are quite good.
In 1993, close to 20,000 Quebecers worked in the aerospace industry. Therefore, the federal government should increase its research assistance in that field. In addition to increasing the budgets allocated for research and development, Canada should change its defence procurement policy regarding goods and services as quickly as possible. This is all the more necessary, given that the new policy no longer includes Canadian content requirements, thereby jeopardizing the development, around each and every base, of companies which have developed such expertise.
Given the federal government's lack of action, these companies are forced to compete with foreign businesses, most of which are heavily subsidized by their respective governments. This creates a double standard. It is very difficult to be competitive when the federal government reduces its subsidies. We are competitive in terms of design and work, but we cannot compete at an economic level since these foreign companies are subsidized by their governments. Yet, we have the expertise. We provide quality products and services.
How, then, can these businesses be competitive when the same types of businesses elsewhere are heavily subsidized?
I can understand the concerns of the people who have built up these businesses with their time and money and the sweat of their brows. We need not be surprised if they also have to relocate outside Canada in order to survive. There is no doubt whatsoever that if Ottawa pulls out of funding research and development a lot of people are going to be worried.
The Government of Quebec will be worried as well. The Quebec minister of industry is committed to looking at ways his government might offset the federal withdrawal. The federal government, via the Department of National Defence, creates a need and then when it finds itself no longer able to foot the bill decides: "Let us shift everything. The provincial government will have to find some solutions".
This is just another way of dumping responsibilities one has assumed off onto the provincial government, withdrawing gradually and leaving them to take up the slack.
In my opinion, this is not a responsible way for the federal government to act. It must change its procurement policy in order to foster the development of leading edge industries. We must take a page from the book of other countries which encourage industrial development.
I trust that this government will, in future, require a minimal Canadian content when purchasing equipment.