Mr. Speaker, I would like to share my time with the member for Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert.
First, Quebec is not asking for a handout. The only thing it wants is its fair share. Quebec's aerospace industry represents, depending on the year, between 55% and 60% of Canadian aerospace industry. It would be only natural for it to receive its fair share of aerospace spinoffs from federal contracts. Its fair share is between 55% and 60% of total spinoffs. The Minister of Industry speaks nonsense. He says that government contracts are not like private ones. Does he not know that a government contract is not a private contract? The minister goes so far as to say that requiring spinoffs for Quebec would be like patronage. We must believe it, we must also see it, and we saw it. We are only asking him one thing: to ensure that Quebec's industry gets its fair share. This is his job as the Minister of Industry.
Quebec's aerospace industry is asking him the same thing, as well as Quebec's chamber of commerce and large labour unions, that is everyone, except perhaps Mr. Charest, who is willing to bend over and to get on his knees in front of the Conservative government. For our part, we will stand up.
The government could have imposed all the conditions it wanted. Since defence procurement is excluded from trade agreements, it can do what it wants. However, it did not specify that there be spinoffs for Quebec. Ottawa is weakening the only real Canadian aerospace centre in Canada. This decision means putting at a disadvantage Quebec industries that, instead of all being integrated into the American industry, are excellent, I repeat, excellent enough to measure up to competitors all over the world and to create centres of aerospace development at home. For a Minister of Industry from Quebec to approve such a bad decision for Quebec is shameful and unacceptable.
There will be 18,500 fewer job-years in Quebec because of the Conservatives. The purchase of the C-17 planes from Boeing, Chinook helicopters from Boeing, Hercules planes and C130Js from the American company Lockheed Martin totals $13 billion, including the maintenance contracts. The spinoffs in Canada should come to at least $9.2 billion. The Conservative government will therefore be directly responsible for the loss of 18,500 job-years in Quebec, the equivalent of 1,850 jobs over 10 years.
At the same time, I believe the Conservative government is turning its back on industry in every shape and form. We need only think of the textile industry, softwood lumber, furniture, and now it will be aerospace. By countenancing this kind of horror, to please their bosses in English Canada, the Conservative members from Quebec have fallen to a new low. By weakening the Quebec aerospace industry, the government is striking at the jewel in the crown of our economy. Aerospace in Quebec means 250 companies, 240 of which are SMEs, whose production is over $11 billion, 89% of which is for export.
Where I come from, in my riding, there are aerospace companies. In my riding, I have Air-Terre Équipement, Automatech Industrielle, Machine-Outils Henri Liné, Placage Granby, Produits intégrés Avior Inc., in Granby, and SIDO. Those companies should be getting economic spinoffs from these contracts, but they are really not sure this is going to happen.
Not only are they not supporting our industry today, the Conservatives are hurting its future too. The Bloc Québécois has long been calling for a real federal aerospace policy. In addition to the usual tax incentives, that policy must have the following objectives: a clear and predictable program to support research and development, a firm and predictable commitment to financing sales, particularly export sales; a policy to support aerospace SMEs; and a military procurement policy that encourages industry expansion.
The Conservative government can keep telling us that the Bloc Québécois can do nothing, but I can say one thing: when the time comes to put forward suggestions and plans, we are right there doing it.
That is when the Conservatives take our plans and ideas and put them to work. Then they realize that the Bloc Québécois does have some influence here, with the government, because it has the right ideas.
Let us talk about the Conservatives' military procurement. In June 2006, the Minister of National Defence, a former lobbyist for military manufacturers, announced the federal government's intention to increase defence equipment procurement by $17.1 billion in order to implement his "Canada First" defence plan.
The aerospace component of the "Canada First" project announced came to $13 billion: $7 billion to procure new aircraft, planes and helicopters, and $6 billion for in-service support and maintenance over 20 years.
The three aerospace procurement programs are: $1.2 billion to purchase four new Boeing C-17 heavy tactical transport planes, plus $2.2 billion for service and maintenance over 20 years. The total comes to $3.4 billion. There is also $3.2 billion to purchase new tactical airlift aircraft, of which the government might buy 17, plus $1.7 billion for in-service support and maintenance over 20 years. The plane that is preferred for this contract is the Hercules C-130J made by the American company Lockheed Martin, for a total of $4.9 billion. There is $2 billion to purchase 15 new Boeing Chinook medium to heavy lift transport helicopters, plus $2.7 billion for support over 20 years. All of that comes to a total of $13 billion.
None of these aircraft has been or will be built in Canada. The search and rescue helicopters were, at least in part, developed in Canada, but no purchase has been announced.
The expression "maximum economic spinoffs" means that the prime contractor must spend an equivalent amount in the Canadian economy, either in purchases or in investments, for each dollar received from the government, but not necessarily in the aerospace industry.
According to the contract, Boeing was to purchase or invest for a total of $3.4 billion, or the equivalent of the value of the contract, while complying with the following conditions: half of the spinoffs to be in aerospace and defence; 30% in technology-related areas, and 15% of spin-off generating contracts to small and medium sized businesses.
There is no specification whatsoever in the contract about the geographical distribution of these spinoffs. Boeing will purchase or invest where it pleases. The aircraft will be built and repaired in the U.S. Direct spinoffs from the contract will, therefore, be more or less non-existent. So will indirect spinoffs.
If, as one might well expect, Boeing depends on its existing supply chain, Quebec should get between 25% and 30% of the spinoff. Boeing has two western affiliates, in Manitoba and British Columbia, and its main suppliers are in Ontario, first and foremost a Mississauga company by the name of Magellan. And this when the aerospace industry in Quebec accounts for between 55% and 60% of the aerospace industry in Canada.
As for the loss of 18,500 jobs, had Quebec got 60% of the spinoffs, the contracts would have generated 37,000 jobs in Quebec. Since Quebec will instead likely see a mere 30%, the contracts will generate only 18,500 jobs annually.
I would like to give an overview of the aerospace industry, but since you are signaling that I have just one minute left, I will try to pick out the salient points I wanted to mention.
In connection with the military equipment procurement policy, the Bloc Québécois is calling for a new policy to be adopted which would comprise the following: give priority to Canadian suppliers; when a Canadian supplier is not in a position to provide the item in question, ensure that foreign contracts awarded generate worthwhile, positive spinoffs in Canada; ensure a fair distribution of spinoffs, i.e. in such a way as to respect the geographical distribution of the industry.
In closing, I would like to thank the hon. member for Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup and read the motion he has presented to us:
That the House denounce the laisser-faire attitude of the government that prevailed in its negotiations with Boeing, regret the fact that Quebec did not get its fair share of the economic spin-offs of this contract given the significance of its aeronautics industry, nearly 60%, and call on the government to provide fair regional distribution of economic spin-offs for all future contracts.