Mr. Speaker, regarding shipbuilding, the hon. member must realize that the Canadian government has had several ships built for the Canadian Armed Forces.
After this program, which involved the construction of 12 ships, was completed, this government went on to have another 12 ships built; these ships were smaller than the big frigates built during the 1980s.
We are continuing this program, which, incidentally, comes under National Defence and not under Transport Canada, as well as programs administered by Industry Canada to ensure a shipbuilding capacity is maintained in Canadian shipyards.
It is true that we do not have the equivalent of the Jones Act he referred to. The Americans themselves are currently considering the possibility that the Jones Act may no longer be relevant, that it may no longer be useful to them or to the merchant navy.
This is a very important issue and I do not think that we can just follow the American example; the Americans themselves may well feel that exportation costs are too high because of the Jones Act and that the time may have come to amend the act.