Mr. Speaker, I know there is very little time, so I will simply say briefly that people are judged by what they do, not by what they say. I do not understand how the member can hold those views about the failures of this bill to support the shipbuilding industry and then support the treaty.
I would remind him again that my union, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, used to have 30,000 members building ships in the Burrard Dry Dock shipyards of Vancouver alone. That was how important shipbuilding was to the union that I represent and the people of Vancouver. That is 30,000 good paying unionized jobs in an industry sector that specialized in high tech and was certainly a modern shipyard.
As I said, it compares with the Canadarm in terms of the robotics and the specialization associated with building these big post-Panamax tankers that make the House of Commons look tiny. We could probably fit three House of Commons chambers in one of these ships. By supporting this bill we abandon even further the shipbuilding industry.
We have an opportunity here to make a statement, that the House of Commons is seized of the issue of the survival of the shipbuilding industry. By voting for this bill and supporting it, we are saying that we are not interested in that industry any more. Maybe there will be jobs created at Wal-Mart for our kids to work, but there sure will not be any in the shipbuilding industry.