There is absolutely no reason, as the member for West Nova has just pointed out to me.
We are putting forth some initiatives, some financial initiatives, some tax incentives, to provide the industry with a more level playing field. There has been a lot of discussion that we cannot compete with the subsidies that exist in the Koreas and the Chinas. My comment is so what. We do not care. There are other markets we can chase down.
Competing with some countries that have subsidies of up to 20% or 30% of the cost of a ship is not a market we are interested in anyway. Those markets have ships with high steel content and low amounts of mechanical outfitting. That actually means they do not have sophisticated, high tech, cutting edge navigational equipment. They do not have systems in terms of the high tech industries such as shipshape drilling hauls which would be used in offshore exploration or drilling in that regard. Those are the kinds of ships we can be competitive with. Our labour is competitive in that regard. The only thing that is not competitive is our tax regime, plain and simple.
I believe fundamentally that the role of government is to do two principal things when it comes to industry. The first is to provide it with sound viable access to markets. That means physically in terms of rails and roads and trade regimes as well. This is something I would like to discuss in the next few minutes.
The second thing the government has to provide is an internationally competitive tax regime. The initiatives that have been put forth have been agreed upon by an unprecedented number of individuals in our society. The shipowners association is on side. The shipbuilders association is on side. Labour is on side. In fact, in 1997 at St. Andrews, New Brunswick all 10 premiers voted for the development of a national shipbuilding policy with fundamental principles that the federal government must and should pursue. To date I am very sad to say that action taken by the federal government essentially amounts to nil.