Mr. Speaker, I will just finish my comments on Afghanistan. That five point plan, which is attached to the international development and financial institutions, will enable us to do this.
I want to talk a little about our banks here at home, and also economic productivity, which is attached to this bill. We know that our banks are a great success story for Canada in terms of industry, but this also leads us into the issue of productivity and how our government and in fact the House can provide solutions to improve productivity in our country.
There are some ways to do that. First, we have to be able to put more money into Rx and D. The government has failed to continue the investments into research and development that we made when we were in power. Second, we have to continue the reduction of taxes to make sure that our tax base is competitive internationally. Third, we have to remove interprovincial trade barriers.
There has been an agreement between my province of British Columbia and Alberta. The agreement between Alberta and British Columbia shows incredible foresight. In fact, it is an incredible model for other provinces to adopt. I certainly hope this model is adopted. What does it do? The agreement between British Columbia and Alberta enables people to work across borders. It facilitates the movement of labour, the movement of capital and the recognition of skills.
Why on earth do we have a situation in our beautiful country where there are more barriers to trade east to west than there are north to south? It makes no sense. We have to deal with the reduction of interprovincial trade barriers.
We also have to enable the private sector to work more effectively. By working with the banks and the private sector, we can find ways in which we can ensure that start-up capital is there for the small to medium sized businesses that are the prime economic generators in our country.
One of the complaints we members of Parliament hear is that the small businesses in our communities really struggle to find the seed capital required to take their ideas from paper to product. This is something that I think would be innovative for the government to adopt if it were to discuss it with the banks, the other financial institutions and the private sector and find out how we actually can do this.
For example, recently there was the issue of British Columbia Ferries purchasing a ship called the Sonja, from Spain. There is an import duty tax of about 17% on the purchase of that ship. That tax will go to general revenues.
However, let us suppose that we took that import tax the company is paying and put it into a fund for the modernization of our shipbuilding industry on the east and west coasts. The president of a shipbuilding company could access the funds but only if the funds were matched. That is the key. That is the beauty of this. A company cannot simply ask for those funds. It can access the funds, but only if it is able to put in its own money. That way, we get a buy-in from the private sector. If we were to do that, our shipbuilding industry would be able to acquire a niche in the medium sized shipbuilding area that would be extraordinary.
I know that on the west coast B.C. Ferries is going to require between 12 and 17 ships. In the future, the navy is going to require ships, which will be built in a compartmentalized fashion. If we are able to build them in Canada, and I am totally confident that we are, this is something intelligent that we could do with respect to our shipbuilders. I know that in my riding of Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca this is very important, but it is also important to the east coast.
Why do we not take that import tax, put it into a special fund, ask the private sector to use those moneys and add their own moneys, purely for the modernization of their infrastructure? We already have an excellent shipbuilding industry, albeit much smaller than what it was. We can expand that. Our shipbuilders, the people who do the work, the technically skilled individuals, are really outstanding. We cannot lose that skill set.
In my view, there is no reason whatsoever why we as a country cannot compete. That is where this bill comes in. Banks can work with the government and the private sector and enable us to be more competitive. This will benefit Canadians from coast to coast.