Mr. Speaker, first off, I would like to congratulate my colleague from Joliette on his excellent speech. He is an economist by training. Whether the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence likes it or not, he has met his match.
I obviously lack my colleague's skill. I am not an economist by training. It is, however, true that we work well together in the Bloc Québécois. Our members are of all walks and all communities.
There is good reason for our supporting the gateway principle and the policy in the bill if it is for nothing other than the global view of the transportation process. Canada's economy suffers overall from a huge gap in intermodal transport between shipping and rail. There are other problems as well, such as with highways, not to mention air transportation.
I personally have some concern over gateways. The Bloc supports the concept. However, in Quebec, we had to live with the situation. I will provide a little background. Members will recall that Quebec was the international air transportation gateway of the 1960s. This is in fact why the Liberal government of the day, the Pearson government, decided to build an airport of international calibre in Quebec for Canada. That was Mirabel airport.
Following the initial idea, there came along a certain Pierre Elliott Trudeau. In his day, Quebec was no longer the international air transportation gateway. Other gateways were created, such as in Toronto and Vancouver. The principle of gateways defended by the Liberal government causes me some concern.
Obviously, it is less of an issue for Quebec, since we are talking about a gateway to the Pacific. Perfect. We must point out, however, that we support gateways, including one for the Atlantic. We hope, of course, that it will be in Quebec, because of the St. Lawrence. You cannot take our St. Lawrence away from us. You can take many things away, but you cannot move a river. We have it in Quebec.
So, we agree with the concept of gateways and all they require in terms of investment in adapting all means of transport: shipping intermodally with rail, road and air transportation. Goods and services have to reach their destinations.
I say that because we are coming up to a very critical period when stores need to be supplied with products on time for the holiday season. This time last year, several independent chains complained about the fact that some goods might not arrive on time for the holidays. We hope all these situations will be resolved by this intermodal improvement in order to ensure delivery to the retailers.
My colleague from Joliette is right. In Canada, there are an increasing number of producers or manufacturers that provide consumer services, but jobs are being lost because of this government's policies. As far as what is left of the economy, which is retail sales, if we cannot guarantee our retailers that their goods will arrive on their shelves, then I think we will have a serious problem one day.
This is worrisome to the Bloc Québécois. My colleague from Joliette and my colleague from Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, indicated that the Bloc Québécois was worried about the repercussions to the traditional industries. Our workers and our economy are seriously affected, especially the textile industry, but also the other industries that are in catastrophic situations because of competition from Asia and India.
We cannot sit in this House and say we are defending the interests of our constituents and not comment on this serious situation involving our industries, including the textile industry. Every year tens of thousands of jobs are lost and go to other countries for various reasons.
For example, as the hon. member for Joliette mentioned earlier, China is artificially keeping the value of its currency low, while the value of our own currency is increasing. Some might say this is a good thing, but the whole processing industry must make adjustments. More specifically, business owners must be able to quickly modernize their operations to save jobs. This is always hard on workers. A member of Parliament cannot claim to protect the interests of his constituents if he does not mention the problems resulting from the international competition in areas such as the textile or manufacturing industry. We are all experiencing this situation in our ridings. We have all experienced closures and job losses in our traditional industries. We must be able to protect our interests and, indeed, recognize the need for a Pacific gateway. However, at the same time, we should be concerned about the job losses that are occurring in our ridings and that are hard blows to our fellow citizens, whom we represent here.
The Bloc Québécois is probably the only party in this House that has always been consistent and that has always risen to protect the interests of workers and citizens in our communities. We make a point of doing so. It is not difficult. It is simply about having principles, something which the Liberals have very little of, and something the Conservatives lost a long time ago. As for the NDP, it is not always true to itself: sometimes it protects the unemployed, while at other times it negotiates with the Liberal government to keep it in office. It is a political choice. By contrast, the Bloc Québécois has always been true to itself. It has always worked to protect workers' interests and will continue to do so, even as regards issues as critical as the creation of the Pacific gateway and the globalization that is represented by the Asian and Indian markets. Those who are watching us can always trust the Bloc Québécois to protect their interests.
However, we notice that the bill provides for the setting up of a structure and the establishment of a council. It is worth taking a look at the composition of this council. All its members would be appointed by the governor in council, on the recommendation of the minister. Even the members coming from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba would be appointed to hold office during pleasure by the governor in council, on the recommendation of the minister. So, these are government appointments. I do not understand why even Liberal members would get caught at this game.
Despite all the statements made by the Prime Minister on transparency and his intention to govern in a different way, the new Prime Minister, who was the Minister of Finance for a long time in the Chrétien government, is following the same old way established by former Prime Minister Chrétien. Such is the good old Liberal tradition: engage in cronyism and partisanship, and appoint friends of the Liberal Party to all sorts of boards and councils.
I do not understand why some Liberal members are rising in this House to defend such a thing. We know all that is going on right now, and tomorrow we will see how the Liberal Party benefited from the dirty sponsorship money. Still, Liberal members continue to rise in this House to defend a council that will be responsible for the whole Pacific gateway initiative, and whose members will be appointed by the government, namely the governor in council, on the recommendation of the minister. In other words, these are partisan appointments.
I understand why each and every poll shows that the public is skeptical about the government's ability to distance itself from the methods used in the whole sponsorship scandal. It is incapable of doing that, as it is clearly demonstrating today.