Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to speak today to Bill C-213, a bill which I support because of my party's longstanding support for the creation of a national shipbuilding policy for Canada.
I thank members of the Marine Workers Federation who came here en masse last spring, from coast to coast to coast, to present 100,000 cards demanding that the government implement a national shipbuilding policy. I am glad to see many of them here tonight for this important debate.
Why do we need a shipbuilding policy? It seems so obvious to many of us, but it cannot be reiterated enough.
I come to this place from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, a community which sits on the shores of one of the finest working harbours in the world. Shipping is part of the economic lifeblood of my community. It is part of our history, culture and who we are.
From my home I can see crews working on ships on the shores of Dartmouth Cove. They are blasting the hulls or repairing and refitting the superstructures. Across the harbour I can see the naval dry docks where our navy is being fit with the latest technology, and as I cross the bridges I see the huge Halifax shipyards, major employers in my community.
These are jobs in a vibrant and necessary industry. I see this from my home, I hear it from constituents, and I know it from the things I am told by the workers in the industry. However, I am troubled by the fact that the government has a different view of the industry. It sees the industry as one which is on the way out, a sunset industry. That is why it is letting the industry die. It sees this industry and the workers involved, and the communities which rely on shipbuilding, as being expendable.
That approach is reflected in the government's indifference to a shipbuilding policy. It is astounding to me that the indifference exists, given the fact that such voices as Buzz Hargrove, J.D. Irving and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce are now all singing from the same song book about the need for a shipbuilding policy. But indifference is what we have seen from the government, or at best mixed messages.
The Liberal Party has a long but not very proud tradition of saying one thing in opposition and doing another when in government. The Prime Minister was firmly in favour of a national shipbuilding policy when in opposition. At that time it was the Conservatives in government who were dragging their heels.
During the election of 1997 the Liberals trotted out kind words about shipbuilding, but when my colleague for Halifax West raised issues surrounding shipbuilding with the Minister of Industry after the election, his position was against the shipbuilding policy. He admitted that his biggest worry was spending any money to support the industry. Why? Because this could see Canada participating in a subsidy war. Once again we saw our government abandoning our industry to avoid potential trade irritants with our powerful neighbours.
We clearly heard that the government's policy was to allow our shipbuilders to disappear, while other countries like the United States were prepared to protect theirs. The difference seems to be that other countries understand the importance of having a cutting edge shipbuilding industry. Contrary to our government's view that shipbuilding is a sunset industry, other countries understand that shipbuilding is using the most up to date technologies in the world.
Other jurisdictions are not content to rely on the third world for their transport needs as a matter of policy either. Unfortunately, that is the case in Canada. Halifax harbour rarely sees a Canadian built ship with a Canadian crew. We instead see ships like the Maersk Dubai. These are common vessels in our waters, ships with no labour standards and questionable safety and environmental practices. It is shameful that this is the policy of Canada.
Very recently we have seen new developments in the Liberal government's waffling on its shipbuilding policy. We have heard the government leader in the Senate, a newcomer in cabinet but a Liberal hack of the oldest order, say that he wants a shipbuilding policy that not only supports the current shipyards, but which can compete for foreign and domestic business. However, across the cabinet table the Minister of Transport is delivering yet another slap to the face of Canadian shipbuilders. He has chosen to abandon any pretence of having a Canadian first procurement policy. An example is that the Minister of Transport has gone offshore to buy the much needed ferry for Newfoundland to Labrador, while the St. John's shipyard is currently idle. Why is that?
It seems to me that the solution to the problem is obvious. Build the ships here. Create the jobs here. Keep the skills here. Support the communities here. Develop the economy here. Instead, we see the Minister of Transport going offshore to get the ferry. How can we trust anything the government is saying when it behaves like this?
I support this bill, not because it is perfect, but because it moves in the right direction. It recognizes that we need public investment, using all public policy tools, such as government loan guarantees and tax credits to support a national shipbuilding policy. That is why I support the bill.
However, as a country we need to go further than this bill. We need to look at shipbuilding as part of a larger shipping policy. Our policy toward shipbuilding should not just create employment, it should set some terms on that employment. We have to establish some environmental terms for that employment. Shipbuilding and refitting can be a dirty job. It involves a lot of heavy industrial activity. Many of my constituents have expressed concerns about the environmental problems related to activities such as blasting hulls and the use of chemical solvents in refitting ships.
For the sake of our workers and the sake of residents who live near shipyards, we need to have more comprehensive environmental controls and protections for these worksites. They should be regulated and the regulations should be enforced. We need to have fair labour standards in the shipbuilding sector which encourage the democratization of the workplace and better treatment for labour organizations. We need basic social rights to be protected by shipbuilders.
We should be looking beyond this bill to having a national policy that requires international shipbuilders to live with acceptable social, environmental and labour standards if they want to use their products in Canada.
We also need to change our overall shipping policies to allow the enforcement of health, safety and environmental standards on all ships which ply Canadian waters.
We need to use a national shipbuilding policy to encourage other industries to add value to our raw resources and not just ship out the raw goods. I believe we must re-approach our dealings with out trading partners and reject subservient relations with other countries, such as we get from NAFTA and the WTO.
While I support the bill, I will remind the House that the root of our problems in many sectors, such as shipbuilding, comes from our decreased ability to use subsidies and tax incentives to promote domestic economic development. These restrictions are a result of trade agreements put in place by both Tory and Liberal governments which restrict our ability to have a national policy in areas like shipbuilding.
We need a national shipbuilding policy: Dartmouth and Halifax, Nova Scotia; Marystown, Newfoundland; Saint John, New Brunswick; and Lévis, Quebec need it. Canada needs the thousands of family-supporting jobs that a vital shipbuilding industry will create. I hope the government will finally commit to action on a national shipbuilding policy for the sake of all of those communities.