I am not talking about a five year plan, I am talking about any kind of plan. I would be happy to have some kind of commitment, some kind of plan so that those shipyards would know they are guaranteed this, this and this order in perpetuity and we could then build on top of that with some other supports in place.
If we look at what other countries do, they offer loan guarantees, long term amortization and so on. In other words, there are actual things that we could do to make these shipyards economically and financially viable into the future. That is what we are calling on the government to do, or at least to consider and be open to this.
We have the Jones Act in the United States. I suspect the Jones Act contravenes every free trade concept that exists. If one wants to move material from port to port in the United States, one has to have a ship that is built in the United States with employees from the United States. We understand why it does that. It is good economic policy from the American's point of view. It is certainly not part of any free trade, free market mentality. It is good regional politics and good national economic development. We do not do that. Again, we are the boy scouts of the world. We let the Americans get away with it.
I suspect that most of us have at one time or another toured a shipyard on the coast or in other areas, large and small. I think it is fair to say that Canadian shipbuilders are probably the most creative, productive and efficient in the world. We do not take a second place to anyone. We can compete with anyone as long as we have a level playing field in which to compete. I think the point being made today is that we do not have that. If we had that, we would do exceptionally well. We need a level playing field for our shipbuilding sector.
Recognizing that employment in this industry has plummeted from 12,000 employees in 1990 to less than 5,000 last year represents where the issue is. It is very clearly a declining industry at a time when international trade is expanding, where the need for ships is increasing and where a whole variety of new technology in shipping is becoming more relevant by the day.
Canada and Canadians should be playing a role in the development of this technology and playing a significant leadership role in the development of these new shipping opportunities, but we do not. One of the reasons we do not is because the government of the day, for some mysterious reason that escapes me, is simply unprepared to sit down and draft a long term strategy, a long term plan for this sector.
I know this may sound boring. I have said long term plan about 20 times in my short speech. However, can we have a successful life if we do not plan it? Can we run a successful organization if we do not have any plan? Can we run a successful business if we do not have a business plan? The answer is always no. However, for some reason we believe that we can have a shipbuilding industry without any national plan to it. It is some sort of magic that we just play by ear day each day. Obviously that will not work.
I could say a great deal more about this, but I will simply compliment a number of the comments made by others earlier. People have laid out the case that we need to have a strategy. It makes sense for a trading nation like Canada to have one.
I say, with some regret, that when we look for leadership on the government benches and to the Minister of Finance, who is certainly well known in the shipping business where he does his shipbuilding and where he gets crews for his ships and so on, they do not really provide the kind of leadership that is encouraging to the Canadian shipbuilding industry.
I will conclude my remarks by simply saying that I hope today's debate at least advances the issue and takes it forward another step. Maybe one day soon we will hear an announcement by the Minister of Industry saying that the government plans to bring the stakeholders together to develop, once and for all, a comprehensive, dynamic, national strategy for Canada's shipbuilding sector.