(Exchange Magazine)
After a written promise to proceed tactfully on policy to support Canada’s all-important shipbuilding industry, the Harper government’s rash decision to kill a customs tariff will reverse years of progress, deter domestic investment and wipe out jobs at Canadian shipyards, said CAW President Ken Lewenza.
“The Harper government has sold-out Canada’s domestic shipbuilding industry, full stop,” Lewenza said responding to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s announcement on October 1 that Canada will eliminate a long-standing customs tariff on foreign-built ships.
“The Conservative government has just given international shipbuilders an overnight 25 per cent cost advantage when selling ships into our market, after former trade minister David Emerson notified our union this would not happen. It’s shameful.” Read more here.
