Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to address my amendments to Bill S-7. There are four in number but all deal with one subject which is mainly to remove crown corporations from the effects of this bill.
It is a well known and well developed tradition in this country that crown corporations at the basic managerial level should be able to operate at arm's length from the political sector. This type of interference is totally unwarranted. The companies are inefficient enough as it is. If the managers are going to have to be constantly looking over their shoulders to see what the politicians want them to do, they are going to be even more inefficient.
There is a basic thrust to this bill which is expressed very well in a briefing note I received from I know not where. It says that legislation is preferable to government guidelines. That is fundamental Liberal policy in just about every sphere of activity. This will be about the fifth time in this House I have drawn attention to what I consider to be the very basic philosophy of the Liberal Party of Canada, that everything that is not prohibited shall be compulsory.
My colleagues are going to address the environmental concerns. I will leave that to them, except I would like to state that as somewhat of an engineer and scientist, I find there is a lot of voodoo science involved in some of the lobby documents I have received backing this bill.
This is not a black and white situation. Certainly propane and natural gas do have some environmental advantages over gasoline and diesel, but they also have disadvantages. On balance perhaps they are better. Over all, ethanol is undoubtedly deleterious to the environment if we consider all of the aspects.
I see an hon. member grinning over there. He wants to have an ethanol plant in his riding. If we study the scientific literature, from a basic, scientific point of view the evidence on ethanol does not add up.
I have noticed there has been an incredible amount of corporate lobbying on this bill. As a matter of fact the corporate lobbying on behalf of this bill has been more intense than anything which has taken place on the Hill since the halcyon days of Dome Petroleum. It is incredible. I have a huge stack of papers.
If this is such a good idea, if the producers of the conversion systems and the people who want to sell propane and natural gas have such good products and they are so sure of their position here, why should government have to interfere in the marketplace to mandate markets for them? This is not the business of government; this is the business of business.
If they cannot break into this market, albeit a small market, I do not know why they are fighting so hard to get it. It is a small market. Let them prove themselves, flex their muscles, talk to the people who do the purchasing, put on some demonstration projects and win the market fair and square in the marketplace instead of getting the politicians to do their marketing for them and shove it down the throats of the bureaucrats. This is not the way government should be run. This is not the way the civil service should be operated.
I most emphatically oppose the bill. However, if we must have it, as it has very clearly become a government bill now, then let us at least have my amendments which will permit the people who operate our crown corporations to continue the unfettered management of these companies on our behalf.