One of the ways we do it is by not electing empty barrels.
By streamlining and simplifying the regulatory process and making it more accessible to the public, the act supports government efforts to make government more transparent and open to Canadians, again a fulfilment of a red book process.
The legislation also supports the government's agenda of promoting economic growth and job creation through a streamlined and expedited regulatory process that will improve the capacity of departments to respond rapidly to the changing circumstances of the global economy.
One thing I find when I go back to my riding and talk with people in small business is the question of not knowing what is expected of them. The passage of the bill will make the problem much less onerous for Canadian operators of small businesses.
I think, for example, of those people who opened small businesses in the city of Halifax. I think in particular of those people who are the most common openers of small business in the country, women. Women start more small businesses in Canada than men do. They tend to stay at it longer and they tend in the long run to be more successful.
One of the problems I hear from women when I go to meetings encouraging women entrepreneurs, talking with them about small business and the relationship between government and small business, is a fear to get into these areas because they are not sure
what is expected of them. They feel they will have to pay accountants and lawyers large amounts of money to interpret government policy to make sure that their businesses are staying within the realms of government regulation.
The bill will go a long way to easing those fears, to opening up for entrepreneurs the ideas of government policy and to telling them exactly what is expected of them.
The whole point of good government is to make the country an even better place, an even more liveable place for the people who live in it. I listened to my colleague from Quebec a few minutes ago. He made the point over and over again that the federal government had nothing to offer to the people of Quebec. I do not believe that, Madam Speaker. I know that you do not believe it. More important, the people of Quebec do not believe it either.
Just recently I had the very good fortune to travel right across the country. As a matter of fact this summer I did it twice, once by stopping off in various places with the immigration committee and listening to people-my hon. colleague from Bourassa was with me on that trip-and once again by returning from the fourth women's conference in Beijing via Vancouver and Calgary to Ottawa.
The ties that bind us together never cease to amaze me, whether we are from Quebec or the maritimes, the north or the west; whether we are from Southwest Nova or Kingston and the Islands; whether we are from the beautiful province of British Columbia; whether we are from the north or the prairies; or whether we are from that beautiful province that is every bit as much my country as it is yours, the province of Quebec.
It is good government that this government offers Canadians. It is good government that will keep Canadians together. It is acts like this one in their plainness that give us good government.