Government Operations committee  Okay.

Government Operations committee  Yes. As I mentioned earlier, it's difficult for me to comment on those numbers that are being provided because I don't know precisely how they come up with them. I don't know exactly what they contain, but I think in a general sense.... As I said, I can't comment on that $77-billion number or that $60-billion number for ships that are not going to be built for 20 or 30 years.

Government Operations committee  The first question was on how many halls and hangars we have. We have three sites for construction in Halifax. Two of them are in Dartmouth, and they're focused on steel fabrication. Those parts are brought across the harbour into our main construction hall, which has two areas: an assembly hall and a module hall.

Government Operations committee  I would need to see significantly more detail on how those numbers were arrived at. I can't comment on numbers that were generated by another company. We should also point out that the ship that they are providing that price for is a significantly different ship from the Canadian service combatant.

Government Operations committee  No, I can't agree with that comment, because it is very difficult to compare the cost of shipbuilding between one country and another country. Different countries apply costs in different ways.

Government Operations committee  That's absolutely correct. I'd like to say that my focus is on the improvement and the development of this workforce for the long term. I'm happy to say that we are getting better every day. We are developing Canadians to be shipbuilders for decades to come, and I think there's great hope in the amount of improvement we're seeing.

Government Operations committee  I gave some numbers in my opening comments, but the actual numbers are over 8,200 jobs that will be created through the combat portion of the national shipbuilding strategy. These are high-quality, highly skilled jobs that a person can make a career out of with a skill that will last a lifetime.

Government Operations committee  At the highest level, I think Canada has stood by us throughout this. The confidence remains. We fully open our books and we fully open our shipyard. We have Canadian representatives on the technical side and the operational side on site non-stop, working with us and watching us every step of the way, encouraging us where they can and criticizing us where necessary.

Government Operations committee  It's quarterly.

Government Operations committee  At Irving we are only responsible for a component of the total cost of the Canadian surface combatant program. We periodically send our projections for estimates of the cost, but these are focused primarily on the construction of the ship and some of the combat systems. They do not include, for instance, infrastructure.

Government Operations committee  Regarding your specific mention of the $800 million for the sixth ship, we should keep in mind that $800 million was a true-up of the cost that was expected to complete all of the six ships. That was not $800 million for one ship. Regarding the comment about the total cost number that you put there, that is not a number that I'm familiar with.

Government Operations committee  I would comment first of all that the complexity of shipbuilding and starting up a new industry cannot be underestimated. We've actually been building ships now for approximately six years. We had to bring in shipbuilders from all over the world to help us get started. We see a turnover in those people.

Government Operations committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today on behalf of our over 2,000 employees at the Halifax shipyard. With me today is Kevin Young, senior vice-president of the Canadian surface combatant program. I'm a shipbuilder with 35 years of experience, including 14 in the NASSCO shipyard in San Diego, where I participated in delivering 40 ships through eight different programs.