Mr. Speaker, in an apocalyptic speech delivered yesterday in Montreal, the Minister of Finance claimed that Canada could not guarantee its present economic union with Quebec would continue because the Americans would use it as an excuse to renegotiate NAFTA. He also contended that a sovereign Quebec would have to wait a very long time before becoming a member of the World Trade Organization, which recently replaced the GATT.
My question is for the Minister of Finance. Will he acknowledge that the proposal a sovereign Quebec will make to Canada for a new economic and political partnership is entirely within the spirit of the World Trade Organization treaty and of NAFTA and would guarantee American business the same conditions of access to Canadian and Quebec markets they now enjoy?