Thank you.
I do not have a lot of questions to ask you. In fact, you have just confirmed our impression that we cannot hope to solve our border problems ourselves. They are largely due to a lack of understanding on the part of the Americans. This is a recent problem.
Recently, I went to Stanstead, a town that is literally on the border. The town was established in the 19th century. A community grew up on both sides of the border, as isolated from Canada as it was from the United States. The richest family in the area, an American one, built a major building on the border expressly so that people from both sides could have access to a library and to education for their children. They built a theatre there too—this was in the days before cinemas. It is still there and still in operation today. I think it has about 300 seats. What changes there have been since! I recall going across the border to go to the seaside with my parents when I was a child, and doing the same with my own children 20 or 25 years ago.
We have been talking about what we should do, and I am in complete agreement, Mr. Beatty. But what chance do we have of convincing the Americans of the advantages of jointly managing the borders?
It is important that security be shared. The Americans always seem to be looking for cut and dried ways of dealing with security issues. But I think they go too far. For example, we grant pardons to people who have criminal records, usually for minor offences; but we exchange those files. Though we in Canada erase criminal records and grant pardons, the Americans do not. Now, of all the people convicted of impaired driving in the last 15 years, I know of not one terrorist, not one person who has genuinely put American security at risk. But when our voters come to see us in our constituency offices, that is the kind of problem they talk to us about. And the problem is growing.
I was minister of public safety in Quebec for a while, actually, minister of transportation and public safety at the same time. That was both before and after September 11, 2001. I saw remarkable cooperation between American states and Canadian provinces, especially New Brunswick and Quebec, when public safety was at stake and power lines had to be repaired. American workers were able to come across the border easily to repair Canadian power lines that had been brought down by ice. Likewise, when they had floods on the other side of the border, our workers went to help the Americans repair their lines, and so on.
Would I be mistaken in saying that the problem comes from the United States? Given your experience, Mr. Kergin and Mr. Beatty, could I ask you what we can do to change that impression?
For example, I was always concerned to see such an intelligent and well-informed woman as Mrs. Clinton, when she was a senator, with the small-town reaction that all evil must come from somewhere else. When America had a major power failure in 2003, the senator was sure that it came from Canada. But it was not so. We have the same problem with terrorist threats.
So, at the highest level, there is an understanding—I think we can all agree—that things have to change. But whereas we are ready, they are not. That is the problem.