Mr. Speaker, I find very telling the fact that the first bill to be considered following yesterday's referendum in Quebec would deal with free trade.
I think that, in a way, this confirms the opinion held by the vast majority of Quebecers, who believed that a partnership with the rest of Canada would have been possible. We received some confirmation this morning that the federal government wishes to improve Canada's economic relations with the U.S. through a bill which basically makes trade between these countries easier. This is very telling indeed, in my opinion.
Quebecers were the first to agree with and to support free trade between Canada and the United States and Mexico. I would just add this must go on, and efforts must be made to ensure that markets are available regardless of which political entities maintain them.
This is true particularly for small business, which accounts for 80 per cent of all job creation taking place in Quebec andwhich has taken on the challenge of dealing with the U.S. and Mexico.
However, free trade must definitely be seen as more than merely an economic issue. The challenge for all Quebecers and Canadians is not to trash the social programs that may have been put in place in Canada. It seems to me that this is a major consideration.
We will not win this free trade battle with the U.S. and Mexico by trying to make anything and everything match the American standard. I think that this will be particularly true in what lies ahead in terms of social program reform, including unemployment insurance and old age pensions. The government of Canada will come up with options which it will hopefully table soon and which will enable us to determine whether it has given in to the American competition and agreed to play their game or else decided to play the free trade game while preserving the values unique to our society.
Accelerated harmonization will only result in making people increasingly dependent on the economy, and increasingly the poor will be going after a limited number of available jobs and, while their employability will increase, their incomes, wages, gains may not follow. In examining a free trade bill, therefore, it is important to look at the other side as well, that is to say the larger system within which free trade will take place.
So, yes to free trade, because we want trade conditions to be eased. We even made a proposal in that sense in the referendum, but it was not accepted by a majority of Quebecers. I think that Quebecers should be congratulated for respecting the democratic choice made. Results such as those of yesterday are not necessarily easy for anyone to take, considering that, for each group of 100 Quebecers, a single person made the difference.
This is true regardless of who that person is. I am not trying to make individual distinctions, but the fact is-and you people know what it is in terms of winning an election-that, for each group of 100 persons, a single Quebecer made the scale tip in favour of one side instead of the other. And you know what it is to win elections. Given that result, people deserve a great deal of respect for accepting, as they did in Quebec, such a close decision. This is not to say that we are giving up on our ideals. Certainly not.
I want to point out another aspect of the bill which, I feel, is important for both Quebec and Canada, namely the need to ensure that the protection granted to the cultural industry will not be jeopardized by a bill such as this one, which concerns goods, including a number of concrete physical products. But there is the whole cultural sector, where we will have to maintain such protection. Indeed, the debate that just took place in Quebec made Canada realize how fragile its position was in relation to its U.S. neighbour. We have to take a close look at some of this.
In fact, Americans should perhaps go back to their history books. It seems as though they decided, in recent days, that no change was better than good change. Sometimes, such things lead to short term victories. However, from a medium term perspective, these issues must be looked at more closely, since Canada, as a member of NAFTA, will, in the future, be confronted with such situations, particularly when countries with economies comparable to that of Chile, likely the next nation to join NAFTA, will become partners under that agreement. We will have to show the same respect towards these countries, whether they are big or small, and treat them for what they are.
When the free trade agreement was signed, we were told that it would take a few years before we started to notice a real difference. It is important to understand that this bill allows for an increase in the value of goods travellers can bring back, to bring these values in line with those set by our main trading partners.
With this bill, therefore, there will be concrete action to increase exchanges, to facilitate exchanges. It must be looked at from that point of view, and it will be seen that there may be some advantages to Quebec consumers, Canadian consumers and American consumers once these regulations are in place. At the same time, we must ensure that our economy and our industrial structure are capable of following suit.
There is one aspect which the representative of the government has not addressed, but which I would like to present. This type of
bill will impact upon the regions of Quebec and of Canada, because a change in customs operations can impact upon the number of customs offices there will be in a region, for instance, and on how businesses will be serviced.
I refer in this connection to clause 12 of the new bill, which states:
Goods, other than goods of a prescribed class, that have not been removed from a customs office, sufferance warehouse or duty free shop within such period of time as may be prescribed may be deposited by an officer in a place of safe-keeping designated by the Minister for that purpose.
That may seem gobbledygook to some, but basically the question that must be asked about this clause is the following: in regions where customs offices are closed, will that mean businesses are farther from their markets and therefore less able to service them?
We must ensure that proper choices will be made. There have been some indications that have not been very reassuring. For example, the government has announced the closure of five customs offices in eastern Quebec. There will, in fact, be none further east than Quebec City. The offices that used to be located in Rivière-du-Loup and Rimouski, the customs officers right out to the Gaspe, all those will be done away with. Can these changes be made without negative impact, ensuring that acts such as this one will facilitate trade?
These are matters that must be looked into. Care must be taken to ensure that the thing is done correctly. This is not really a change in legislation but rather a change in administrative application, and the government must ensure that its decisions do not penalize the regions.
I have already stated, and return to the point here, that it is highly significant in my opinion that the intent of this bill is to concretize aspects of the partnership between Canada and the U.S. Throughout the entire referendum campaign we were told many times that the same thing is not possible between Quebec and Canada. It is very surprising, but at the same time very instructive, to come upon it again this morning, and this allows those who have taken part in the debate to see where the reality of that debate lay.
How can we arrange things in this area to avoid the bureaucratic complications experienced in a number of other sectors? Bill C-102 contains many technical elements, such as clause 5, according to which the operator of a sufferance warehouse or duty-free shop:
-shall keep in Canada such records-and shall, where an officer so requests, make them available to the officer.
In other words, customs brokers, the people who work in this sector, have a list of items-a, b, c, d, e, f, and up to i-which they are supposed to keep, so that in future they can produce them for the federal administration. From this side, it looks much like an approach that was often used in the seventies, which I think is not necessarily a good idea for the future, because when I talk to owners of small and medium size businesses today and ask them
what the government, any government, could do to improve the situation, I get two answers.
The first one may seem rather surprising but is understandable. They suggest reducing subsidies but doing it across the board. The second one is about bureaucracy.
I am referring to the administrative paper burden for small and medium size businesses, which means they often have to spend as much time on paperwork as much larger companies in order to meet government regulations. In this bill we will have to ensure that what customs is asked to do-maintain certain records-can be done efficiently without getting into the same problems we had with the GST, for instance.
Finally, Bill C-102 implements the effects of the free trade agreement. Generally speaking, we applaud the fact that these regulations will be put in place, since they will provide for a better trade relationship between the signatories to the free trade agreement, which is what everyone wants.
Quebecers were among the instigators of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, and they certainly hope this will continue. At the same time, we should remember that countries do not necessarily need very big borders to engage in mutually beneficial trade. In the nineteenth century, wars were fought to expand a country's territory and thus its domestic markets. As we approach the end of the twentieth century, we realize this can be done quite differently by simply letting everyone engage in trade, thus shifting the scene from the battlefield to the economy, where people who can produce goods and have a stable society are able to survive and contribute to economic development. That is where we are today. And we hope this trend will continue, but always with due respect for the society we represent.
One sector that is more or less affected by this bill and that I would like to bring to your attention is the dairy industry. Farmers in Quebec and five other provinces in Canada signed an agreement in the summer of 1995 which covers milk supply management throughout their territory. This agreement is valid at least until 1999, when it will be reassessed. It could last much longer. The producers reached this agreement in an effort to face the approaching challenge as the GATT agreements reduce tariffs in milk sales, which are of concern to them. We have set them a big challenge. Fortunately, however, they have already faced major challenges.
This sector, which is more vulnerable than a number of others requiring appropriate measures, needs all the support it can get to face the upcoming changes. One is the partnership between Quebec and five other provinces in Canada to deal with this market and also to obtain appropriate forms of assistance from government in increasing productivity to enable producers to provide a better quality product and to make products available in market niches that do not yet perhaps exist. One example of this is biological milk production.
It is important to be able to forecast developments in industry, in agriculture and in other sectors and to see what is coming up. When we do not look to the future, we find ourselves in situations like the one in Quebec last week, when, suddenly, the federal government realized the situation in Quebec was special. After two years of saying that Quebec's situation in Canada would be resolved through good federal government, it had the lesson of its life, discovering that, in both Quebec and Canada, the problems were more than just economic. There are problems of distribution of wealth and of balance between the country's two founding peoples. The message from Quebecers was very clear: without specific change and without concrete proposals acknowledging Quebec's place in this country, in the very near future, a majority of Quebecers could well decide to change the situation.
That was an example involving the agricultural sector. One thing Parliament could do, in my opinion, through the standing committee on agriculture, for example, would be to ensure the options chosen for the coming years, and I am referring not just to the term of the present agreement, which lasts until 1999, but afterwards, are relevant to the priorities of the sector.
There is a sort of distress at the fact that there are fewer and fewer actual people farming, but their economic impact remains as strong. We must not fall into the trap of elected officials who say that, if fewer people are involved, less concern is warranted. We must instead establish the sensitivity of this sector and the type of action to be taken. This latest referendum campaign was a real revelation for me: it showed me the importance of these situations and of knowing how to plan ahead. I think we may be judged on this as well.
Bill C-102 is therefore here to be passed. The Bloc Quebecois feels it should be passed. It will support it. It also feels that bills enabling us to make progress should always be passed. We should never be afraid of change for its own sake.
When change is appropriate, we have to know how to integrate it. When it is not appropriate, we can reject it. However, when it is appropriate, we have to know how to integrate it. This is very important and, much later, this is how what we have done will be judged.
I would therefore like to say in conclusion that Quebec put its faith in free trade and will continue to do so, so that, in the end, each of the characteristics of the components of North America, and of the francophone people in particular, may be recognized,
validated and further developed, and Bill C-102 is one tool that will help in this regard.