International Trade committee  I think it is one of the best places in the world for the government to get the best return on its investment and that is because of the huge surpluses that the Middle East countries have. They are undertaking large scale, subsidized projects and creating jobs in the process. We

International Trade committee  That is one of their big projects. I used to have a picture of it on my cell phone. It is quite interesting. Where else in the world, other than in Dubaï or Qatar, would you expect to see that?

International Trade committee  Yes, a great deal of money. It is the Canadians who should have built that project. Canadians are the best downhill skiers, isn't that right? There is a lot that can be done over there. They built a huge hotel in Abu Dhabi; I think it cost 2.5 or 3 billion dirhams. The hotel wa

International Trade committee  If I may add to that, at one time, for example, I was told clearly that Libya would like to do business with us and not the Americans. They want North American technology but they want to go through Canadians; they don't want to go to the Americans. In Algeria, SNC-Lavalin has b

International Trade committee  SNC-Lavalin has a number of employees who speak various languages. I believe that at least 50 different languages are spoken by SNC-Lavalin employees. That makes things quite a bit easier. It isn't simply a matter of speaking Arabic or Chinese or some other language; in order to

International Trade committee  I can see the environment being a major issue now. We can do a lot of services there. The governments there are becoming more mature, more environmentally alert. So there is more business for the environment, for example, where we can service them. We have companies in the enviro

International Trade committee  It's very tough to do that when the world is becoming one entity. Really, there are almost no more borders anywhere. If you look at it from the point of view of what the trade is, it's basically what's behind this trade that we do. We do services. SNC–Lavalin is over there to c

International Trade committee  I'd like to stress one thing, first, if I was misunderstood. The embassies help us. They're not that well staffed, but we get full support from wherever they are. I just want to point this out. On bilateral agreements, business in the Middle East is not easily done unless you h

International Trade committee  All of our projects are valued at several billions of dollars.

International Trade committee  Not in Oman. There is an office in the UAE and in Saudi Arabia. They have none either in Bahrain. There is an office in Kuwait. That puts us at a great disadvantage. I will give you an example. When we make a bid, it is important for us to visit the country, but the ambassador an

International Trade committee  The tribal mentality still applies in those countries. It is always the country's leader, the head of the government, who is in charge of everything, who is the one who gives the orders. Without his consent or his blessing, nothing will work, particularly when it comes to large s

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for giving me the opportunity to take part in today's meeting to discuss SNC-Lavalin, our expertise, the work that we do in the Middle East, our current outlook and the difficulties that our company has encountered in the Middle East and more particularly