Mr. Speaker,I am pleased to speak to this motion in my capacity as the Bloc Quebecois transportation critic.
Let me begin by telling my colleague for Fundy—Royal that our party finds his motion very interesting and is in favour of it. Unfortunately, that support cannot take the form of votes, because this motion is not votable. The debate this evening is, however, highly relevent.
In Quebec we have the wonderful motto “Je me souviens”, but sometimes unfortunately we do not use our memory effectively. I will explain with an anecdote.
During the 1993 election campaign, I had the opportunity to represent my party in a debate on Radio-Canada, participated in by Jean Pelletier, the executive assistant of the current Prime Minister, and the ineffable or unspeakable Pierre Blais, erstwhile Minister of Justice in the Conservative government, a man very taken with his own importance.
You will not be surprised to hear that, since this debate was held in the greater Quebec City area and was apparently broadcast as far away as the Magdalen Islands and the Portneuf region, the question of the survival of MIL Davie Shipbuilding at Lauzon was raised.
Remember, this was 1993. I recall very clearly that Pierre Blais, a Conservative minister, and therefore in the same party as the member moving this motion, said to me “For the nine years that the Conservative Party has been in office, it has given contracts to MIL Davie”. I asked him how much they had given and his answer was $1.2 billion.
I told Pierre Blais, the Conservative minister at the time, that, while the Conservatives had given $1.2 billion to MIL Davie, they had given $11 billion in contracts to shipyards in the maritimes. This shows that, Liberal or Conservative, it makes no difference.
Naturally, we agree that the government should provide tax incentives to revitalize shipyards, but I would remind all our listeners—and I am sure they include former employees of Canadian Vickers in Montreal, Marine Industries in Sorel and present employees of MIL Davie in Lauzon—that no more than 12 or 15 years ago, Quebec had three major shipyards. They were responsible for 50% of the shipbuilding in Canada, and the only province that has rationalized its shipyards is Quebec.
Canadian Vickers was shut down; Marine Industries in Sorel also shut down, leaving only Mil Davie. Meanwhile, the Conservatives encouraged the founding of shipyards in the maritimes. The people at MIL Davie in Lauzon did their bit. They rationalized. Recently, when this shipyard was sold, when the present Government of Quebec encouraged a private promoter to take it over, the men and women of MIL Davie scrapped their collective agreement and showed their complete flexibility in order to create a climate conducive to building. All that remains is to deliver.
I want to tell you that the management of MIL Davie or Les Industries Davie, as it is now called, has shown leadership. Last August 30, the Port of Quebec received the world's second largest drilling platform, the
Spirit of Columbus
, which will be repaired in the port by people from Les Industries Davie, providing employment for 400. Les Industries Davie has shown that it can land international contracts.
What I am concerned about, however, is having certain tax incentives to encourage our Canadian shipowners to build ships here and repair them here, in Quebec and in Canada. It is on this point that I agree completely with the motion moved by my colleague, the member for Fundy—Royal.
I would remind members that, during the term of office running from 1993 to 1997, the Conservatives, with a leader and one member, were not very visible in the House of Commons. But I will tell the member for Fundy—Royal that the Standing Committee on Transport, of which I was then a member, tabled a report in May 1995 that was essentially the precursor of Bill C-9 now before us. This report led to Bill C-44, which, as we know, died on the Order Paper, in the Senate. That is why we are debating Bill C-9 again today.
The Standing Committee on Transport had tabled a report entitled “A National Marine Strategy”. This report included a recommendation, Recommendation No. 22, which I think is relevant. The report gives an indication of the Liberal government's willingness to go in this direction.
This is what the Liberals promised in 1995. Recommendation 22 provided: “In order to ensure the long-term viability of the Seaway, the federal government—this is the Liberal majority speaking in committee—should give serious consideration to the development of an incentive program to stimulate new construction and refitting of Canadian and foreign flag Seaway-size ships based on the essential condition that the work is done in Canadian shipyards”.
We in the Bloc Quebecois prepared, with my colleague, a minority report containing, if memory serves, 26 or 27 recommendations. There were some recommendations we certainly could not live with. That is why we tabled a minority report.
This is what the dissenting report of the Bloc Quebecois said with respect to Recommendation 22: “The Bloc Quebecois members on the Committee are pleased to note that the majority of members agreed with this proposed recommendation—that was our position. They fervently hope that the minister will consider it as it is vitally important to the future of the St. Lawrence Seaway and to shipyards in Quebec and in Canada”.
So, bouquets aside, it is very important to note the Bloc's concern. What we would like and what we want from the Liberal government is for it to behave like Bernard Landry, the Quebec minister of finance, in its next budget. Minister Landry was congratulated by the shipbuilding industry on the measures in his May 9, 1996 budget to encourage the building and repair of ships here, in Quebec particularly.
This budget included four points that are of interest: a new tax credit for builders; financial guarantees that would be given through the SDI; a reduction in the capital tax on the acquisition of ships; and, finally, a tax holiday for Quebec's sailors. These, I think, are measures that encourage shipbuilding in Quebec and in Canada.
The present Minister of Finance would do well, because we know his links with Canada Steamship Lines, to propose these sorts of incentives. We are trying to fight a war with water pistols, because we know that owners turn to other countries that have incredible tax benefits to build their ships, and we are unable to compete. That concludes my remarks.