Mr. Speaker, I will address this question to my hon. colleague from the Laurentides but first I would like to made a comment and take this opportunity to take back remarks I made earlier to the previous speaker.
I said that powers were delegated only in relation to the issue of fishing licences. I was mistaken. I read the bill over, and, under clause 58(1), the minister has indeed provided for delegation of powers in relation to the environment and habitat protection.
Having done my mea culpa about what I said previously, the problem lies, and my hon. colleague from the Laurentides is absolutely right, with the environmental law. This is a relatively new field of law. I realize that it may not have existed 100 years ago, when the original fisheries act was drafted in 1868.
But it exists today. Quebec has made significant progress in this area too, but even if fisheries were its responsibility under the Constitution, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans did not have any power regarding the environment; the law said so. The department was not given such powers by the Constitution. However, in clause 58(3), the minister decided that, where the vision of any given province is inconsistent with that of the federal government, federal law will prevail. That is what it says.
In other words, the minister is telling those who have delegated powers: "Kiss your powers goodbye. I decide now". Which is
more insulting. How could the federal government delegate to a province a right that it is no longer entitled to have itself? As for the right to protect the environment, Quebec is already looking after that, and doing a fine job at it.
I find doubly insulting the fact that, on the one hand, the federal government would be delegating a power that it does not have itself and, on the other hand, where an inconsistency exists, the rule of law will be in favour of Ottawa.
Perhaps one hundred years have gone by before the Fisheries Act was reviewed but, with measures like these and provisions like these, I can see one hundred years of quarrelling lying ahead. I would like to hear my hon. colleague's comments on this.