National Defence committee  These are big ships. Two of them have now been produced. They are 10,500 tonnes. A frigate is about 4,000 tonnes. That gives you a feeling for the size and complexity.

National Defence committee  I would just add that when we talk about shipbuilding in Canada, we sometimes talk about the cutting of steel. We have to remember that a lot of the companies that were created during the frigate days are still surviving and thriving. I use L3 MAPPS of Montreal or OSI on the west

National Defence committee  I have just one follow-on comment that speaks to the earlier question. The key thing to remind everyone about Project Resolve, the Resolve class AOR, which I keep coming back to, is that it's a non-developmental system. Typically in a warship today, 40% is for cutting steel and 6

National Defence committee  They're ramping up.

National Defence committee  Part of the frustration I had in my last company was that I was exporting into 15 countries, and I often found that the most difficult place to sell was in my home market. Running a small business high-tech company through which you're winning contracts throughout the world in th

National Defence committee  I'll give you my personal view on submarines—this is way outside of FFS, but you've asked the question—and if Canada were to embark. Twenty years ago there was a program called CASAP, the Canada-Australia submarine acquisition program. We were going to share the build in what was

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. On this I can speak to our current situation. I thanked the Government of Canada because it is helping us at this time. Indeed, three allied countries are considering our ships. We're not talking here about a 5- or 10-year horizon. We are producing a

National Defence committee  I think what's germane to the discussion is that during the negotiation, which lasted almost four and a half months, the Government of Canada employed five third-party external auditors to audit what we were proposing to the Government of Canada to fill this urgent operational re

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. This is what I want to say. Mr. Gerretsen mentioned earlier that when public servants change their minds or viewpoints, things happen and problems arise. Personnaly, I do not approve of the concept behind this manoeuvre. I know what is going on, whic

National Defence committee  My point, which I think is along the lines of what you're asking—and this is the critical item that gets lost in all of our discussions of procurement, the fundamental criticality of the cost and profit policy—is that our profit for the lease that we negotiated with the Governmen

National Defence committee  That was just on our project specifically.

National Defence committee  When the Government of Canada chooses to sole-source.... Very quickly, there were two controversies during the First World War. There was a conscription crisis and war profiteering. Canada has a tool box to ensure that there is no profiteering and that costs are very well contr

National Defence committee  To be clear, there's no attempt here to interfere with the work that Seaspan has received under the letter of interest or the umbrella agreement. That's not the intent here. The intent is to say that right now the system is not producing. In Emerson's report last year, chapter

National Defence committee  In shipping worldwide, vessels typically are a single-purpose company. That's done for a variety of reasons—the traditional history—so Federal Fleet Services is actually a company that is completely independent from Davie shipbuilding. We've given a conversion order, just as any

National Defence committee  Yes.