Marc de Villers,
Helmsman, “Camilla Desgagnes”.
marcdevillers@icloud.com
514-404- 6008.
Honourable Members of the Committee:
I’d like to speak to you briefly about the effects of C.E.T.A.’s Maritime Provisions on the Canadian Merchant Marine and its’ seafarers, should Bill C-30 be approved.
The Maritime Provisions permit European ships to exercise Cabotage Rights within Canadian waters, a Trade until now reserved for Canadian ships and their Canadian crews.
European ships are operated mostly by low-wage, Flag of Convenience crews, paid 1/10 to 1/3 what Canadian crews are and often operating under inferior working and safety conditions, which give them great economic advantages over Canadian ones.
A study conducted for the Saint-Lawrence Ship-operators Association by the Accounting firm of Ernst & Young found that European ships would have crewing costs only 30% those of Canadian ships.
In Debate on Bill C-30, a Member of the Commons International Trade Committee remarked:
‘My colleague just said that some workers make just 2 dollars an hour. I would like to know where in Europe that is the case. After all, working conditions there are very much like ours. I would be very surprised if that were true.”
Though Bill C-30 had been debated for months, and the Committee had already examined C.E.T.A.’s Provisions clause by clause, the Commons International Trade Committee Member still did not realize that European ships use low wage, Flag of Convenience crews.
C.E.T.A.’s Maritime Transport Chapter Article 3, subparagraph 2 states (in abbreviation): “Each Party shall permit… the other Party to supply feeder services between the ports of that party.”, meaning low-wage European ships are granted Cabotage Rights alongside Canadian ones in all of Canada’s Territorial waters.
These rights are then mostly suspended in C.E.T.A.’s Reservation II-C- 14, permitting European ships to exercise Cabotage rights only between the ports of Halifax and Montreal.
However, Reservation II-C- 14 could be revoked, thus restoring to European vessels Cabotage Rights, granted in the Maritime Transport Chapter, between all Canadian ports, in competition with Canadian ships.
Should C.E.T.A.’s authors have wished to grant rights to European Interests only between Halifax and Montreal, they might easily have done so rather than granting them Maritime Cabotage Rights to all Canadian ports in the Maritime Transport Chapter, then suspending most of them with Reservation II-C- 14.
Because Reservation II-C- 14 can be easily revoked, Canada’s seafarers and employers may be kept from constructively negotiating:
Seafarers may hesitate to make effective counter-offers to their employers in contract negotiations for fear of seeing Reservation II-C- 14 subsequently revoked and the market flooded with low-wage labour and ships;
Some may seek to have II-C- 14 revoked to permit Canadian ships to be registered as European ones in order to benefit from low wage crews, or lower seafarers’ wage and/or working conditions, perhaps also hoping that fear of II-C- 14’s withdrawal may prevent effective bargaining.
Additionally, should Bill C-30 be approved, C.E.T.A. grants European Interests the right to bid on contracts for the provision of Government services.
With regard to the provision of Ferry services, notably in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and British Columbia, European Interests might submit a low bid, register the vessels as European, dismiss their Canadian crews upon expiry of their employment contracts and hire low wage, Flag of Convenience ones.
When Government M.P.s were asked directly 3 times in Debate whether C.E.T.A.’s Maritime Provisions would eliminate thousands of Canadian seafaring jobs, though these respondents included a Parliamentary Secretary, they did not deny this or reply in any substantive way.
Asked directly for clarifications on the effects of C.E.T.A.’s Maritime Provisions a further 8 times, Government respondents, including Parliamentary Secretaries and the Minister for International Trade, made no substantive replies.
The Canadian Merchant Marine may disappear as the British, French and others ones did, without anyone seeming to notice.
It is my hope that Members of the Committee will consider recommending to the Senate that Bill C-30 not be approved until such weaknesses in C.E.T.A.’s Maritime Provisions, which put the existence of the Canadian Merchant Marine and its’ thousands of seafaring jobs at risk, be either revised or withdrawn.
Thank you for your attention.