Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question and I also thank him for his tour last year of my area to review shipbuilding and to understand the shipbuilding industry in Ontario, which is not only in southern Ontario but in the Ottawa area as well.
I should remind him that we do not want to get into a subsidy shipping war because of other countries. We have heard over and over “not a subsidy”. However, when we get down to reviewing proposals it becomes a subsidy.
I am interested in proposals, as long as they do not involve a subsidy campaign. I am willing to meet with the member, as I have before. However, let us understand that the Export Development Corporation, in conjunction with the member for Fredericton and a representative of the shipbuilding industry in New Brunswick, met to discuss the EDC's financing and over time it changed from eight to twelve years. They are still meeting on an ongoing basis to discuss various other alternatives. That is the way it should be done, sector by sector.
The member from Lévis mentioned the premier of New Brunswick, to whom I have written in objection to his comments that there is no shipbuilding industry in Ontario and that if there were, maybe there would be interest. I immediately wrote to him so that he could understand the shipbuilding industry across Canada. I do not believe he understood that the shipbuilding industry exists from coast to coast to coast. I am interested in how he would proceed from there.