Mr. Speaker, I can assure the hon. member that our party stands up in favour of a strong Canadian culture. What we disagree with is how to get there.
I would like to pose a question to the hon. member. First, the hon. member talked about economies of scale. I think he would
acknowledge that other industries over the last several years have utilized economies of scale but this has not meant the complete collapse of various Canadian industries. In fact what has happened, which I think he would acknowledge, is that many of those industries have grown stronger and have gone on to compete around the world.
Bill C-103 actually prevents that from happening for the Canadian magazine industry. I will give the member a perfect example of that. Télémédia, a Canadian company, which actually publishes Harrowsmith magazine out of the United States, had to be grandfathered into the bill so that it could continue to publish in Canada as well.
When this legislation is put in place, assuming it will be, in the future Canadian companies will not be allowed to publish out of the United States and then have it come back into Canada. In effect, it stops Canadian companies from expanding. To me, that is absolutely ludicrous. It shows how provincial and inward looking this legislation is.
I challenge the hon. member to defend that particular aspect of this legislation and ask him how that is going to promote Canadian culture around the world.