POLITICIANS PROTEST
Premier Philippe Couillard, left, and CSN union leader Yves Fortin joined hundreds of people and politicians from different parties for a march on Sunday calling on the federal government to award more contracts to the Davie shipyard in Lévis
In a rare gesture of political unity, Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, members of the Opposition and Bloc Québécois chief Martine Ouellet added their presence to a protest in support of workers at the Davie shipyard near Quebec City on Sunday.
The protest, organized by employers and employees, was also attended by several hundred ordinary citizens as Couillard called on the federal government to grant more public contracts to the shipyard in Lévis.
Couillard said the majority of federal ship contracts have been given to Nova Scotia and British Columbia, with little left for Quebec — and that federal dollars must be spent more evenly. In November, the Confédération des syndicats nationaux and the National Assembly asked the federal government to turn the tide, with the union saying Stephen Harper’s Conservative government had accorded the majority of contracts — $33 billion worth — to the shipyards of Nova Scotia and British Columbia.
Couillard had visited the Astérix, a commercial container ship converted at the Davie shipyard to a military supply ship for the Royal Canadian Navy — on time and within budget. It was the first large naval ship to be built in Canada in more than two decades. Workers at the shipyard had been expecting an order from Ottawa for its sister ship, the Obélix.
But the navy no longer wants the Obélix — and an absence of major orders meant that 113 workers were recently told they would be let go, and there is concern that as many as 800 jobs could be lost by Christmas.
Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Sunday the federal government is “in the process of analyzing the situation.”
“We cannot artificially create a need that does not exist,” Garneau said in reference to the Obélix. “On the other hand, the federal government has needs vis-à-vis the Canadian navy, the Coast Guard and federal ferries.”