National Defence committee  My name is Jerry Dias. I am the assistant to the national president of the Canadian Auto Workers Union. Thank you for inviting the CAW here today. I am flanked by our director of the aerospace department, Dawn Cartwright, and Roland Kiehne, who is the president of Local 112 in D

National Defence committee  There are clearly going to be benefits. The F-35 is a huge contract. We don't buy the argument that there can't be IRBs as a part of the initial framework. We just don't buy the argument that somehow it has to be one or the other. We're being told that we can bid on $12 billion

National Defence committee  Yes, that would be a fair statement.

National Defence committee  Let's be candid. Lockheed Martin is going to control the high technology in the manufacturing of the aircraft. The key fuselage, the Q-bay, and the key technologies are going to be maintained by Lockheed Martin. So what's left over? Machining, composite work, assembly. For exam

National Defence committee  The aerospace industry is heavily subsidized, including Canadian aerospace giants. So it's a question of how much you want to participate. If you take a look at Canada's auto industry, it has declined over the years. Why? Because other countries around the world have been more

National Defence committee  That is correct.

National Defence committee  Many of the companies we deal with in the aerospace sector have a foothold in Canada but are not Canadian companies. They want the work. I would suggest to you that they're not as determined as we are, and as we around this table should be, to create Canadian jobs. That's why we

National Defence committee  No, I haven't seen the study, but we're coming up with the same numbers. When you have the opportunity to bid on $12 billion, even at a conservative estimate you get 30% to 40%. You're looking at $4 billion worth of offsets, or in that area. Once again, and I don't want to be rep

National Defence committee  Yes. To go back to your question, there's no question about control of the aerospace industry. You play a major role in the aerospace industry if you dabble in technology. You don't develop the aerospace sector by having strong warehousing capabilities. The reality is, if you wan

National Defence committee  I can't talk about the numbers, but if it is straight jobs related to the parts, spares, and in-service, that's one thing. Repair and overhaul requires that you buy components to install. I would expect that the components you're buying would generate many times more than that in

National Defence committee  First, our Canadian industry clearly has the capabilities to do $16 billion worth of work, let alone $12 billion worth of work or $4 billion worth of work. We have the expertise and the technical ability. I'm concerned about guarantees. I have zero confidence, frankly, that Loc

National Defence committee  I would love to respond.

National Defence committee  Yes, I would love to. Mr. Hawn, let me load the questions the way you did. I love your question--

National Defence committee  From a straight high-tech point of view, we have MacDonald Dettwiler, which obviously is predominant in space. We have our members at Bombardier Aerospace. We have our AMEs; we have people who sign off aircraft. But off the top of my head, none of our members I can think of are d

National Defence committee  Absolutely, if we're going down that road. Just to finish off, whether or not we need aircraft that carries bombs and missiles and has stealth capabilities, that's a discussion for another day, but if we need to replace the F-18, we'd best do it with what's best available.