National Defence committee  Lunenburg has 3,000 people in the wintertime and 10,000 to 12,000 in summertime. Lots of people from all over the world are buying houses for their families during the good summer holidays.

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  It's a great question. I don't know if I'm going to give you the right answer, but I do feel it's about globalization and the way the world is moving. In the past it used to take ten years to see things flow, regulation modified. Today, with the speed of the Internet and the way things are moving, I think a lot of policy and things are going to be changing in how we do our business in the future.

National Defence committee  No, because it's ITAR-protected. It's well controlled. But on the commercial side, no more offsets--it's finished.

National Defence committee  Sure. We have scallops, lobster, shrimp, halibut—the whole thing.

National Defence committee  Those are the direct jobs. There have to be indirect jobs attached to that. I would say we will develop more companies, more volume, and more work. The good thing with a defence contract is the fact that in this case, when the airplane is qualified or the product is qualified, you don't have major change.

National Defence committee  For us, as you know, we are smaller in Nova Scotia, but it will affect some of our supply chain. Probably 20% will be affected if the program does not go. There is another thing, which has not been mentioned tonight, which we have done and we have to do. We do spend a lot of time on training in our company, helping employees to graduate and receiving the right certification and qualifications.

National Defence committee  No, Composites Atlantic Ltd. is certainly not going to give orders or make recommendations to EADS. At the same time, EADS is not going to make recommendations to Composites Atlantic Ltd. about choosing contracts. As a company, we are entirely free to present our budgets and choose our contracts.

National Defence committee  The proof, and I was just coming back to this, is that we work for all manufacturers of original equipment worldwide. EADS does not impose any restrictions on us. Business is business.

National Defence committee  No, I didn't go this week. They do repair and overhaul.

National Defence committee  There are level 1 companies, like Pratt & Whitney. Your company is also a level 1 company. After that, there are levels 2, 3 and 4.

National Defence committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Bachand.

National Defence committee  There's a change in practice happening in Canada. For many years, many in industry were dealing with partners in the United States, but we have also learned to protect our technology with patents. I'm sure my friend Gilles and I have many patents that will protect us worldwide for the next 21 years.

National Defence committee  The world economy today is not very good on the commercial side. We are happy to see that there are some strong and good defence contracts, in particular for the joint strike fighter. Any delay will put each company in more difficulty than we are in today.

National Defence committee  No.