Mr. Speaker, I am happy to rise today to support the motions of amendment put forward by my colleague for Medicine Hat. Before I do that, I would like to take a moment to speak about Bill C-103, which is the basis for these amendments in the first place.
What we have here is a form of cultural protectionism. It is protectionism for an industry that I do not think really wants it or needs it. This government seems to assume that this industry cannot stand on its own two feet, that it does not have a quality product that can be sold throughout the world on the basis of that quality. I really disagree.
I wonder what has happened to the Liberal government. At the same time those members have been talking about trade liberalization, bringing in NAFTA, the GATT agreement, they seem to be moving in the opposite direction in the area of culture.
In this area specifically we are talking about split runs for the magazine industry. What they do not realize is that Canadian magazines also use this technology very effectively. We have an industry in Canada out there competing in the international market and we can do it without government help. Those Canadian magazines will get sideswiped in this whole process.
This goes against the whole grain of free trade, of trade liberalization, and Canada does not want to set this example. We want to set an example that we are free traders, that we can compete on the basis of quality.
The question of whether this is actually a dumping issue was raised by my colleague earlier. If this is a dumping issue, that the Americans are dumping cultural property into Canada, it should be how it is addressed. We have a basis for discussing that with a NAFTA trade dispute panel. Why does it not go there instead of taking this round about way of hitting them with an excise tax?
We have to simply move away from this whole idea that we cannot compete unless we have government subsidies. Our cultural industries are actually being adversely affected by our assuming that and we have to get on with the process of competing on the basis of quality.
I want to talk to the first and second amendments proposed by my colleague. The first amendment deletes the term "excluded edition" from the bill. An excluded edition is an issue of a periodical that has less circulation in Canada than outside Canada. The second amendment deletes references to split end editions.
The purpose of these two amendments is to ensure the Canadian magazines we talked about earlier, which circulate in the United States and do split end runs, do not end up paying excise taxes in Canada in their attempt to penetrate the American market.
They are being penalized by an attempt to exercise cultural protectionism. The whole purpose of liberalizing trade between Canada and the United States is to allow goods and services which are superior and which are in demand to find a much larger market. We defeat that purpose of free trade by taxing Canadian periodicals which have a chance to stand, to make it at home and abroad.
Canadian periodicals should be free to export our good ideas and our great culture to the United States. They stand a better chance if they can do so by using the split end run technology on their editions abroad and not be penalized here at home. Presently there are two Canadian magazines, Harrowsmith and The Hockey News , which will be caught in the net of the bill.
Amendments Nos. 1 and 2 by my colleague ensure that these and other Canadian magazines are excluded from the bill's provisions. I would like to see our amendments passed this afternoon.