Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to tell you at the outset that I will be sharing my time with my hon. colleague for Beauport—Montmorency—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île-d'Orléans.
I am very pleased to take part in this very important debate, even if it is quite technical. It is very important for the development of economically significant regions of Canada, like the maritimes and the coast of British Columbia and particularly Quebec.
I am very pleased to participate in this debate as member of Trois-Rivières, which is a maritime city, and also as labour critic, since it has an effect on the institutionalized disorder that we see in that industry. I believe there is too much reference to labour. As coast guard critic, I know that some people of the coast guard are also closely involved with the issues related to shipyards.
I will read, for the purpose of the debate, the motion introduced by the member for Saint John.
That this House calls the government to develop a new national shipbuilding policy to support the revitalisation of the Canadian shipbuilding industry by maintaining and advancing the degree of excellence and the technologies for which Canada is historically renowned, given that Canada has the longest coast line of any nation in the world and that historically Canadians are among the finest shipbuilders in the world.
I would now like to pay a very special tribute to my colleague and friend, the hon. member for Lévis-et-Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, who has done not only a remarkable job on this issue but a task that could be termed as colossal. Indeed, for more than a year, the member for Lévis-et-Chutes-de-la-Chaudière has travelled all across Canada and has met all stakeholders, builders, all shipyard operators that are members of the shipbuilders association, despite the fact that he is not all that fluent in English. Nevertheless, he managed to deal with the situation and he established excellent contacts with employers as well as with unions in the shipbuilding industry.
Through his efforts, he succeeded in bringing together, on Parliament Hill, on December 8, 1998, representatives of a large Quebec shipbuilding firm and almost all Canadian unions involved in the shipbuilding industry. According to a union representative, this was a first in Canadian history. He managed to bring together, to discuss the problems faced by shipyards, many stakeholders as closely connected to the industry as these people were. He pulled a major coup by bringing to the same table representatives from the four opposition parties, including three out of the four leaders, to make the necessary representations and put pressure on the government which, in this issue as in others, has proven to be inept. The purpose was to try to improve the way this very important industry has been treated.
This resulted in representations to the Standing Committee on Industry with a view to putting forward, through this committee, recommendations reflecting the comments or the vision of the labour representatives as expressed at this meeting. Unfortunately, in this issue as in others, the government lent a deaf ear and eventually only very reluctantly agreed to conduct a broad study, reportedly too wide focussed, on the productivity of shipyards. The timetable and specific goals of the study are said to be unclear.
This cannot be stressed often enough: it is totally nonsensical, ludicrous, and deplorable to be debating this issue today when we know how critical this industry is to Canada's economy.
Canada boasts the world's longest shoreline, three oceans—the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Arctic—and, as long as we are still part of it, the most important water route in the world, the Saint Lawrence River. In spite of all these very positive factors, shipbuilding in Canada is in a deplorable state, reportedly operating at merely 40% of its capacity.
Yet it is a high tech industry, because building ships is a complex operation. It is a category of industry that has to apply the most stringent of quality standards. It is a member of the ISO 9001, ISO 9002 club. ISO 9001 is for the aeronautical industry. This industry is governed by very demanding quality standards and the shipbuilding industry in Canada and in Quebec can hold its own with any other in the world.
This government, true to form, has been negligent. It is all very well to speak today of shipbuilding, but we know that this government has been negligent with the air transportation industry, with the rail industry, with the shipping industry, not just with shipbuilding.
Quebec has paid for that negligence. We have seen shipyards close down in Gaspé and Sorel, a small-scale one in Lévis, and Vickers in Montreal, all in the past 15 years.
I would like to return to the manpower issue. I am concerned, as I have already said, as the labour critic, by the references to labour costs. This does not hold up to analysis, according to the figures available to us. According to the 1994 figures provided to us by the shipbuilders, via the union of the marine workers federation, the CAW, shipyard labour costs $15 U.S. in Canada, while only 2 countries out of the 12 analyzed pay less than Canada: Taiwan and Greece. All the others pay more.
For example, while it costs $15 U.S. an hour in Canada, it costs $18 in Italy, $19 in France and the U.S., $24 in Norway, $27 in Japan, and $30 in Germany. These are the 1994 figures.
Thus, the argument that the industry is not competitive with other countries because labour costs are too high does not hold up to analysis.
But the best explanation for the disarray in the industry is to be found in the government's negligence. The Minister of Industry, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Transport and the Minister for International Trade keep passing the buck to one another on this. Even the Prime Minister did not answer the letter my colleague from Lévis-et-Chutes-de-la-Chaudière sent him several months ago. The Prime Minister did not even bother to answer the letter.
In 1993, in the red book, the Liberals, and in particular the Liberal candidates from the Quebec City area, made a firm commitment to do a serious study of the issue. In March 1998, grassroots Liberals raised the issue again and asked the government to take a firm stand and take action on shipbuilding, but it has not yet done so.
Hopefully, today's debate will make the government think and take the measures needed to improve the situation of this valuable industry. The government—and I am just talking common sense here—should act to make Canada and Quebec world leaders in shipbuilding. The government should stop dragging its feet and do what needs to be done to make Quebec and Canada the world leaders they should be.