Mr. Speaker, at the end of a conference on interprovincial trade, ministers representing federal and provincial governments seemed to agree to open government procurement to Canadian businesses in general.
The Quebec minister responsible for industry and commerce, Rita Dionne-Marsolais, puts a value of $100 billion a year on government procurement. According to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, 1.9 million jobs, 470,000 of them in Quebec, are directly related to this major market. The minister, who was obviously satisfied when she returned from the conference, thinks that, unless there are unexpected circumstances, the agreement will come into force in 1997.
We are pleased to see that the Quebec government decided to take part in this conference and is ready to sign this agreement on the easing of interprovincial trade. That proves that Quebec has everything to gain from being a part of Canada.