Mr. Speaker, I have a question for my colleague from Vegreville.
During his presentation there were comments from the Liberal side asking what his speech on internal trade barriers had to do with the Canada-Israeli free trade agreement. I suggest that it has everything to do with free trade agreements, bilateral and multilateral.
Our Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade has done a study on why small and medium size businesses are not exporting. As a point of reference, about 100 companies in Canada are responsible for 80 per cent of our exports. It is a sad commentary that we are not allowing opportunities for small and medium size businesses to explore this very important growth area. One of the biggest reasons which those businesses give for not getting involved is they say they cannot build economies of scale in Canada because of the restrictive trade barriers within Canada. That is hurting their ability to get big enough to launch into the international trade area.
I would like to ask my colleague from Vegreville if he sees this as an important restriction on the ability of Canadian companies to get into the export market.