Madam Speaker, during a previous question period, when addressing comments regarding Bill C-88 to the Minister of Industry, I suggested that Bill C-88 contained provisions which go far beyond the agreement on interprovincial trade, which gives each party recourse to retaliatory measures.
Bill C-88 appropriates powers to the federal government which were never discussed during the negotiations leading up to the signing of the agreement on interprovincial trade last summer and is also indicative of, we feel strongly, the federal Liberal government's extremely strong will to centralize trade relations with its partners. The current trend in international trade is to give regions more political autonomy and to establish economic unions, not to create big federations with rigid centralizing constitutions, like the Canadian federation, which is given an inordinate amount of power to take retaliatory measures.
The primary goal of the bill is to implement the Agreement on Internal Trade, not to permit the federal government to implant itself as the supreme power on interprovincial trade. Do not forget that the Bloc Quebecois has always been in favour of liberalizing trade in this way, which, at any rate, is the framework within which all modern states must develop. Therefore, we do agree with the agreement in principle.
The way we understand the provisions of this agreement is that, if the federal government is the slighted party in a trade deal covered by the agreement, it has the means to take retaliatory measures. By the way, so can any other party to this agreement. However, that is not what is written in Bill C-88.
Why not? Because clause 9 of the bill goes over and above the intent of the agreement. This is quite straightforward. Clause 9 reads as follows: "For the purpose of suspending benefits or imposing retaliatory measures of equivalent effect against a province pursuant to Article 1710 of the Agreement, the Governor in Council may, by order-but the other parties may not-"
The bill refers to orders, which cannot be taken lightly. None of the other parties have this authority. Orders are used by totalitarian governments to subdue the other parties. It says in this bill that the Liberal government wants to govern by order under this agreement on interprovincial trade. Are we looking at a dictatorship? That is the question.
In this context, according to the wording of Clause 9, when one of the parties is found to be at fault pursuant to Article 1710 of the Agreement, the federal government-and it alone, among all the parties-whether or not it is a party to the dispute, assumes the right to impose retaliatory measures on all the provinces, without exception.
In this bill, the federal government demonstrates its determination to act as judge and jury in the area of interprovincial trade, to introduce its exclusive authority to act by order in council and to extend the application of any federal law to the provinces-