Mr. Speaker, I would hope that the minister would go along with the idea that Canadian jobs are at stake when we are talking about shipbuilding.
We have an opportunity in Port Alberni where a small builder, Kamma and Blake, have designed and built a 47-foot aluminum motor lifeboat that has caught on with the military around the world.
The technology has been paid for by Canadian taxpayers. The difficulty is that the Australians are now coming to Canada to basically get the design, take it back to Australia and build it. The Department of National Defence is giving away that design.
The people in my riding feel this is a Canadian designed boat. It is a good boat. Why are we not building it in Canada? Why would we export our technology and give it to somebody else when we can build it in Canada? We are exporting Canadian jobs.