Mr. Speaker, I commend the hon. member for his comments and his brief question. I know that within the industry committee the hon. parliamentary secretary is always open to discussing various issues. Shipbuilding has been one that has come up on the table which we have been looking at and planning to deal with in the future. Hopefully, we will be able to address some of the issues in the Jones Act that were left out during past trade discussions.
Instead of blaming past governments or looking at past records, especially when it comes to shipbuilding, we should be looking at ways to make shipbuilding more competitive and become an industry that can survive on its own. We should start moving away from areas of subsidies, such as the technology partnerships Canada program. Right now the World Trade Organization is ruling that a lot of subsidies are illegal. We must look at ways to get the shipbuilding industry moving through tax relief.
When we look at the issue of tax credits, we basically have some of the highest tax credits in the country for the shipbuilding industry when we look at our R and D and tax breaks. However, we still have the lowest spending per capita when it comes to the shipbuilding industry, specifically in the overall basic R and D spending and investment in those areas, even though we spend a fair amount in research and development.
We have to address those key problems. I think trade liberalization is the key, but we must also balance that with tax policies.