It is evident to everyone, as one of my colleagues reminds me, that Team Canada must have as an underpinning the assurance of an efficient and reliable transport system. Team Canada is the combined efforts of the provinces and of the federal government to ensure that there is a concerted effort, that all the energies of Canadians provincial and federal are directed toward the achievement of our export goals. Nowhere is this more evident than in our combined efforts to ensure that small and medium size businesses are fully involved in the export successes that have marked the Canadian economy over past years.
Our efforts to promote small and medium size enterprises in the export world, including our vigorous efforts to ensure that small businesses in Quebec also enjoy those opportunities, can only be hindered by the absence of a reliable and efficient rail system. It is for that reason we oppose the amendments that have been brought forward this morning and look for an early resolution of the rail strike that is causing such disruption to our export trade.