Mr. Speaker, it is a great privilege to speak once again on Bill C-105.
This bill shows that you need to build an infrastructure whenever you deal with trade with other countries. That infrastructure takes a substantial amount of effort to create so that there is trade and investment taking place among different countries.
Looking at the legislation, as I said earlier in the debate, there is an agreement with 55 countries. I know members of the Bloc think it is very simple and easy to build a relationship with other countries. They think it is very easy to set up treaties, make agreements and develop trade with other countries. It takes a very long time to build the infrastructure and the treaties. It takes a long time to make agreements and create the organizations to develop trade and exchanges, rules, regulations and understandings among different countries.
It does not take a genius to know that if the infrastructure is broken, if those agreements are broken sometimes they cannot be renegotiated. For example, some people in the Bloc think it would be very easy to negotiate a new NAFTA. That simply is not the case. Look at the world trade agreement. It took years and years to negotiate that, to develop a consensus among so many countries.
This bill shows that as a country, Canada needs the tremendous infrastructures we have built in trade, transportation and organizations. These were not created overnight. They took years and years to develop. It also takes expertise.
I sometimes wonder what the people in the Bloc are thinking when they say that they can do the same thing overnight and that they will be able to set up all the agreements the next day and do all the things it took Canada so long to do. It makes no sense.
Everyone knows that when political uncertainty is created, business people are not willing to invest where there is uncertainty. One way to judge that is what has happened in real estate, the business I was involved in. It is a very good indicator of the investment climate and of the uncertainty that exists. If we drive across the bridge over to Hull we will see that real estate prices are lower because of the uncertainty in Quebec. They are substantially lower because of the political uncertainty created by members of the Bloc.
The jobs that are created, whether they are in Canada or other countries, the investment and the foundations that are laid are because of stability. We need political stability to ensure that we create a climate for investment and for business.
This bill is an indication of another infrastructure, another agreement we are developing as a nation. All Canadians will be able to take advantage of this. It will become easier to invest in other countries and easier for other countries to invest in Canada.
If that infrastructure is broken, it creates problems. We will not have the built in systems. Those systems take a long time to develop. As a country we have to recognize that. I think the people in Quebec recognize that they cannot duplicate overnight what took so many years to build. That is going to be a disadvantage. When we have those types of disadvantages we cannot compete. If we cannot compete, the reality is that jobs will be lost. Anybody who says that if Quebec is no longer part of Canada no jobs will be lost does not have a clue about the reality that exists out there. Thousands of jobs are going to be lost because it is taking away the system, the infrastructure, the communications, all the things that have been built up.
There are many examples around the world where countries have been torn apart. What happens is that the prosperity is not there. Racial harmony is a key to prosperity. At this time, the stronger the unit we have, the greater our ability is to negotiate and fulfil agreements, to have financial strength and to have a critical mass where we can talk to other countries because of our fiscal strength. We can talk to other countries because of our technologies and they will want to talk to us about the economy, trade and making exchanges.