Mr. Speaker, the question of the dockyards in St. John's is one that has been discussed very thoroughly.
We have advised the president of Marine Atlantic to look into the commercialization of all the activities of Marine Atlantic, including the dockyard at St. John's.
The future of the dockyards at St. John's lies completely in the hands of the management of Marine Atlantic and especially the workers at that facility. We lost in excess of $3 million there last year. We do not intend to have that happen again.
Unless we can find a buyer for the dockyards at St. John's or a better solution than what we have been able to come up with so far, there will be no alternative but to close it. I hope that will not be the result of the work we have undertaken there. The board of directors and the president of Marine Atlantic have been given a
very clear directive that we have to commercialize the activities of that entire operation. That includes the dockyard at St. John's.