Mr. Speaker, I agree with the hon. member and thank him for his intervention. I agree that this tariff, this one little piece in the EFTA is not going to really create a vibrant shipbuilding industry.
Recently, some of my colleagues and I met with representatives from the shipbuilding industry. They said that this 25% tariff is not going to help the industry, but taking it away, if we get rid of this, it will kill the industry as it exists now.
I agree that we need to have a full, robust shipbuilding policy, but why would this member not support the one piece that we have now that prevents pulling the plug on a dying industry. I will refer to the Breaking Through: The Canadian Shipbuilding Industry report, which I will again mention brought industry together with workers to come up with creative solutions for the shipbuilding industry. I have some excerpts from it here.
Their recommendations included: eliminating exceptions to the existing Canadian shipbuilding policies such as tariffs and federal procurement; strengthening industry and government partnerships to focus more on high prospect areas such as oil and gas; improving the planning processes on federal procurement; pressing for the elimination of foreign subsidies and unfair pricing practices by dozens of countries; designating the industry as a national priority; and promoting marine transportation as an environmentally friendly alternative to other modes of transportation.
This is part of a shipbuilding plan to save this industry. Right now we just have this one provision in front of us. My question to the member is, why would he not support an amendment that could be the base upon which we could actually build a shipbuilding plan?