Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join in the debate on Bill C-102, an act to amend the Customs Act. I am especially pleased to do it today, the morning following a major decision in Quebec to keep Quebec in a strong Canada.
I made mention of that because Bill C-102 is all about keeping our country strong. Keeping our country strong has been one of its elements and trade is very important to ensuring that our nation remains strong and continues to grow and prosper for the benefit of ourselves, our neighbours, our children and our grandchildren. We
can now look forward to getting on with other agenda items for the country. We can focus on some very important matters.
While Bill C-102 contains numerous items that on the face of them appear to be relatively minor, people involved in importing and exporting know they are very important.
I will talk about trade in the larger context. Most Canadians, my constituents included, will read in the newspapers from time to time Canada's trade balance compared with the rest of the world or that it has x billions of dollars in surplus with our trading neighbours, particularly our American neighbours to the south. This is an important number but it does not give the whole picture about what trade does for our nation, our citizens, our businesses and the world.
Trade opens and keeps open lines of communication. When the Prime Minister led a delegation dubbed Team Canada to China not long ago, in some quarters he was criticized because there were deemed to be certain problems in China over the issue of human rights. The message was made very clear by the Prime Minister of Canada. We have concerns about what happens in terms of human rights in China, but the way to improve human rights there and elsewhere in the world is principally through trade. Through trade is communication. Through trade is learning. Through trade is job creation and growing and strengthening economies. Trade is the best way to improve our understanding of each other around the world. As is so often the case dollars talk. Free enterprise and capitalism when properly undertaken can in themselves drive the entire world toward higher standards of living and better relations among all people.
The bill is part of the big picture. It is part of what Canada needs to do to ensure that all our small, medium and large businesses compete in the world and at the same time contribute to the world. It is very much a give and take situation.
Canada, with its vast human resources, natural resources and technical know-how, has been able to maintain a relationship with the rest of the world that has been very much to our advantage. We have seen the maintenance of hundreds of thousands of jobs in many sectors of the economy. My riding of Algoma is a riding in northern Ontario which one might not think is dependent on trade. It includes part of Sault Ste. Marie, a border community. I will talk a bit later about what it means to be a border community. We also depend on tourism which is very much a trade item. We also depend on forestry and mining.
I had the chance recently to meet a delegation representing the mining sector during their visit to Parliament Hill on a lobby day. It is easier to appreciate that even mining involves trade, the trade of minerals, the trade of natural resources and also the trade of people.
There is no question that without trade we cannot as a nation make the advances necessary to continually improve the lot of our citizens and the citizens of other countries.
I would like to pick out a few of the items in this bill for special mention. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister have capably outlined some of those provisions. I would like to relate some of those provisions to experiences I have had in years past in my own work life, for example measures to deal with duty deferral and the tremendous red tape that is involved in importing an item which will be further processed and perhaps become part of another item which will then be exported.
In the seventies I was the manager of a small electronics manufacturing company in my riding. We were producing an electronic product. It was necessary to import a couple of components which simply were not available in Canada. The red tape we had to go through to import those items which would be included in a final product which would then be exported caused more headaches than I could possibly describe in the short time I have today. The lost manpower, the loss of time and resources were incredible.
If there is one commitment this government will keep to business, particularly small and medium sized business, it is the reduction of red tape. Bill C-102 is going to combine the drawback provisions, the numerous provisions that are presently required of small business. Inward processing and bonded warehousing are other examples of red tape now facing importers who require products from outside the country for inclusion in a product which is made here and then exported.
If there is anything we can do for small and medium sized businesses it is to reduce the red tape. From my experience I can say that this is certainly a most welcome addition to the streamlining this government is committed to making.
Numerous small companies in my riding export. In Elliot Lake, ELMAR Co. manufactures products for the mining sector. More recently it has diversified to include consumer products such as special clothing for handicapped children and other products. It has faced numerous difficulties with the very issue I raised a moment ago, that being the importation of a good for inclusion in the final product which is to be exported.
The fact that Bill C-102 will also streamline and reduce tariffs is a very welcome measure for this company and others involved in export. The books which contain the tariff codes are huge, about two feet thick. We should do whatever we can to simplify and reduce the requirement that small businesses need to call their broker or a government office to find out about a particular product and its code standing. Whatever we can do to eliminate the
necessity of businesses to do that, we are adding that much more to the productivity of that business. Red tape never actually adds profits to the bottom line.
I think business accepts that there needs to be a certain amount of involvement with provincial and federal governments when it comes to paperwork, but there is far too much of it. We made a commitment in the campaign to reduce the amount of unproductive work required by businesses in this regard.
Mention has been made about streamlining border crossings for travellers, tourists and truckers. As I mentioned a moment ago, part of Sault Ste. Marie is in my riding. The border crossing at Sault, Michigan and Sault, Ontario is popular. Some years ago there was a tremendous problem with cross border shopping at a time when our exchange rate was not such as it is today.
Happily, I can report that is not a major problem right now but line-ups are a problem. Line-ups are created because even though 99.9 per cent of travellers are honest citizens and would tell customs or immigration agents the truth when asked, a tremendous bureaucracy has been created to catch the less than 1 per cent of people who are dishonest and might be trying to hide something.
I see in Bill C-102 a recognition that most people are honest. Let us find ways to zip them through the border crossing and instead focus our energies on those who would try to avoid duties or would try to smuggle something into the country.
We have the modern technology and we have seen some pilot projects in B.C. and elsewhere that will lead us to fulfilling the commitment made between President Clinton and our Prime Minister during the president's visit to this country some months ago. That commitment was that the border between our two friendly nations be made more open. We have seen it with open skies in the airline industry. We are also seeing a push toward opening the border, being respectful of the need to manage our different citizenship and our different cultures, but at the same time recognizing that this border, the longest, friendliest border in the world as I understand it, needs to be managed in a way which recognizes that most people crossing the border are honest citizens with nothing to hide.
When I see the provisions of Bill C-102 that are moving us toward that goal, I am very pleased for my constituents of Algoma riding in northern Ontario who are not very far from the U.S. at Sault Ste. Marie.
I do not think we know for certain how this will all work out, what regimes will be put in place to simplify the crossing for visitors and truckers, but if there is a will, there is a way.
I mentioned truckers. What a waste of time for a trucker with a load to deliver to have to wait at the border for some official to go through endless paperwork and examination before allowing him to cross the border. Like our visitors, I am sure 99 per cent of our truckers are carrying legitimate loads to legitimate destinations. Whatever we can do to speed things up, we will be adding to that company's productivity. We will be able to help companies reduce their transportation billings to their customers. Down the line it will mean less expensive products at the consumer level. We are doing everyone a favour when we streamline our border crossings.
Also in relation to borders, there have been attempts by the Manitoulin Economic Development Association to establish a ferry service between South Baymouth on Manitoulin Island and Alpena, Michigan. Sadly, that project has been put on hold for a while because of cutbacks by the Ontario government and because the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission has had to cut back.
As part of the project, I had made a commitment to work with the Minister of National Revenue and his officials to find a way to establish an international ferry between Canada and the U.S. on Lake Huron. Tourists would benefit from a streamlining of the relationship between our two nations.
Even though this project has been put on hold for the time being, it is very important that we push ahead with initiatives right along the border between Canada and the U.S., be they land or marine borders and that the ability for travellers to enter each country be made as easy as possible. This is in recognition of the fact that most people are honest and do not want to deliberately deprive the province or the federal government of their small share of taxes or duties.
There is an issue which arose in committee and which the parliamentary secretary referred to dealing with the valuation for purposes of calculating duty. In simple terms, the confusion arose over the value placed on an imported good if it was shipped from the manufacturer, but the order was placed by a third party who charged a mark-up for the good. The debate was, should the value be the price from the manufacturer or the price the third party actually charged the final user in Canada? Very good arguments were made by a number of excellent witnesses, who said that the price should be from the manufacturer level.
The committee was not convinced that the proposal in Bill C-102 was different from similar practices in the U.S. or Europe, although good arguments were made that we were undertaking a practice that was different from either the U.S. or Europe.
In moving ahead with Bill C-102 and with the valuation provision, we have made a commitment that, as for all trade related legislation, this legislation will be sent to an international panel for review to make sure it fits within the terms of our international trade agreements. A WTO panel will look at the trade provisions of Bill C-102 to ensure that it is consistent with our commitments to our trading partners around the world.
I am sure that if a problem is found, being a responsible government we will look at any comments or suggestions which come back from the WTO panel. The majority of committee members were convinced that the provisions of Bill C-102 with respect to valuation were consistent with our European and American trading partners in particular.
In my concluding moments, I would like to go back to the general theme of Canada as a trading nation. It is important that we maintain our integrity as a good and honest trading partner to the world.
We are a trading partner that can be relied on to deliver product on time because our small, medium and large businesses are strong and able to produce and deliver on time. This requires that we not stand in the way of business to produce quality products, that we do not stand in its way to be profitable and that we ensure our education system, our manpower training system, is always there ready and able to provide qualified workers who know how to produce excellent products, who know how to do the research required to enable Canada to maintain its proper place as a leading trading nation.
We look forward to seeing Bill C-102 implemented.