Transport committee  Madam Chair, I need to excuse myself. I know my colleague, Jean-Philippe, can answer any further questions.

Transport committee  Our crew costs are about a third of our costs. Fuel is another third, and everything else would be thrown into the last third. So when I gave you the numbers, this is information that this industry has been sharing, we're actually giving you the more optimistic number around wh

Transport committee  At present we don't. We work across Canada.

Transport committee  Here's the problem for Canadian dredgers and the reason we're discussing reciprocity. We both have vessels that could work. Ours formerly went all over the world. Our problem is that our markets are so far from us. We can't work in the United States because of the Jones Act. For

Transport committee  I think that's the basis of our point. We have the conditions. We meet all the standards that Canada requires. Whether it be in wages, safety, taxation, or environment—which was raised by Mr. Fournier—we are compliant. We are audited. And we believe in those standards for our cre

Transport committee  It's three weeks. We're supplying these very well-paying, middle-class jobs to people who are very skilled and who have taken the time to have that training and spent the money on that.

Transport committee  Our issue is with the government staff.

Transport committee  We know of cases where they have not been. In fact, the SIU went through a case a few years ago where they were not being.... And we know that Transport Canada, as well as the other agencies, have struggled with resources to be able to enforce them, and also struggled with the co

Transport committee  Okay, sorry, yes. I apologize, and on your example of the Hebron project we understand that one of the European dredgers came in, did the work in a month or so, with a full foreign crew, even though they had a coasting trade licence.

Transport committee  We don't believe there is enough staff.

Transport committee  Sorry. We're not here today asking for money. There have been other groups under CETA that have asked for money for their industries. We're not asking for that. We think the money is much better spent within the agencies of the government to reinforce the ability to enforce those

Transport committee  We think it's understaffed right now. Thank you.

Transport committee  It all depends on how they feel they need to set up in Canada to be able to compete on the larger projects and what kind of vessels they have available. It's not just dredging vessels; they can use barges with heavy-duty cranes on them to do dredging as well.

Transport committee  I'm glad you asked that question, Member Hardie. We had a good meeting this morning with Transport Canada as they are trying to work this out. They right now have advance notification, whereby the firm would put in their application and show that they are eligible to opt out of

Transport committee  Yes, it's about $7.5 million, which is a very low hurdle.