International Trade committee  Speaking for the industry, we can turn the whole thing around. The industry could have quite a good future. We need to realistically look at the proposal the association has sent to the Prime Minister and get it going. I've been coming to Ottawa for a long time, and I've found

International Trade committee  Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity. It's so important to us. I'll come back any time.

International Trade committee  It probably started in the mid-1980s, when the government started a program of rationalization. I forget the number of shipyards that were in business at that time. George can answer for the west coast; there were quite a number that were closed on the west coast. You had Colling

International Trade committee  —there was a decline in the industry after that. That's when rationalization started. And basically it has continued to this day. Recently you had Port Weller shipyard in St. Catharines, Ontario. The shipyard basically went out of business. It went into bankruptcy. It's now try

International Trade committee  If it's not a sellout, it's getting close to it. It certainly doesn't enhance the survivability of the industry. It jeopardizes it. It would be pretty hard to say it's an absolute sellout, although it's getting close. It's not only EFTA that concerns us. The ground rules may be s

International Trade committee  Mr. Julian, can I add one thing? It's not only the shipbuilding industry that's jeopardized. It's the ship owners. On the east coast you have owners who operate offshore supply vessels. Norway operates one of the biggest fleets in the world. They have something like over 50% of t

International Trade committee  The association absolutely would.

International Trade committee  It's basically the ongoing technology. If you go and try to recruit engineers and naval architects from the universities and you're running a repair facility, you're not too attractive to good top-quality engineers and naval architects. The technology comes from new construction

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Cardin. I'm sorry for the delay, but I don't speak French. In fact, I've often been told that I don't speak English, either.

International Trade committee  I'm curious about part of your question. You mentioned $4.3 billion. Are you referring to the cost of the contracts?

International Trade committee  Okay. Basically that's the cost of the programs. There actually are two problems. There's EFTA and what we can achieve under EFTA. Then there's what I call following on with the completion of the rationalization program. It just happens that timing is causing the two to come tog

International Trade committee  Yes. If you started all these programs right now, you would create thousands of jobs across the country. It's not only the shipyards. We buy equipment and materials in almost every province. Unfortunately, we don't buy much in Manitoba. But look at Ontario, for example. If we b

International Trade committee  With all due respect to the minister, I think we've been making presentations on that for at least three or four years.

International Trade committee  Finance. We've made presentations to the Department of Finance, and it's always been the Department of Finance that has said no. Really, the accelerated capital cost allowance is not costing the government any dollars. It's the time value of money, and that's not a big factor in

International Trade committee  It would be open bidding. If you look at the cost of a ship, it doesn't matter what type of ship you build, approximately 60% of the cost to the shipyard is purchased items. We buy engines, generators, pipe, valves, fittings, and cable. That would all be up for competition. So t