Mr. Speaker, the Canadian van line owners are very distressed about a new tendering process that has been put forward by the Department of National Defence which will radically change how government contracts out moving services in Canada.
The present tendering system ensures each local or regional moving company shares in the winning contracts by matching the lowest bid, thus everyone gets a piece of the pie. The new proposed tendering process will allow one bidder to take all, with tenders open to anyone in any country, thus creating a monopoly.
If allowed to proceed, this new moving tendering process could destroy much of Canada's moving industry. Atlantic Canada will lose approximately 2,500 jobs.
Atlantic Canada cannot afford to lose any more. I ask the government to stop this proposed new tendering process before jobs are lost and an industry is destroyed.