Mr. Speaker, as this is the first time I have spoken in the debate on the bill, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the voters of Beauport—Montmorency—Orléans for placing their trust in me once again in the June 2 election. They may rest assured that I will do my best to meet their expectations from me as their member of Parliament.
Right off, I would like to say that the Minister of Transport earlier presented a true picture of the procedures that led to this bill's return to the House of Commons.
He probably forget, however, as memory is fallible, or perhaps he omitted—a little more serious in this instance—to mention that the bill is back before the House because the members of the other House, the senators, blocked the bill before Parliament adjourned prior to the elections. This is more serious in a democracy.
There was a lot of input on the previous bill, Bill C-44. The former Minister of Transport, the member for Victoria, confirmed he had consulted Canadians across the country. The consultations took place in capitals, communities and among the people. We in the Bloc proposed a number of amendments to the bill. The initial consultation cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions.
So where does that leave us today? Unfortunately, because of unelected people appointed either by the ruling party or by the Conservative party, we must let unelected people interfere with democracy and completely set aside a piece of legislation that was the subject of extensive consultations. This is cause for concern. It has to be denounced because the members of this House have been democratically elected, they have been sent here by the people of their ridings. Is it normal and acceptable in this day and age to have unelected senators come and tell elected members what to do?
I will get to the substance of the bill in a moment. While all this is going on, the entire maritime industry in Canada and Quebec is suffering, and that is cause for concern. This puts an end to what I might call my preliminary remarks. I now come to the bill before us.
First of all, I want to reiterate the Bloc's position on this bill, for the benefit of the current transport minister. As for the principle of the bill, we in the Bloc Quebecois agree with it because, except for the dates, the vast majority of the provisions contained in the bill are identical to those in former Bill C-44.
In this respect, to avoid making the system even more cumbersome, it might have been possible, perhaps even advisable, to pass the bill quickly. At any rate, the minister can rest assured that, if the transport committee approves the few changes we are seeking, it will be possible to proceed quickly with this bill.
We will recall that the government had given Bill C-44, now Bill C-9 before us, the bombastic name of Canada Marine Act, which was undeserved, as we in the Bloc Quebecois pointed out, denouncing the fact that it did not contain—and still does not contain—anything about shipbuilding, shipyards and the merchant navy. That is a concern.
In 1994, when I was the transportation critic of the official opposition, the Bloc Quebecois, I suggested in committee a tax policy designed to promote shipbuilding in Canada and in Quebec, as is done in several other countries. Unfortunately, the legislation is silent as regards that proposal.
The bill before us essentially shows how miserably the federal maritime policy has failed in the past 20 years. The federal government just realized that its involvement over the years has resulted in costly and cumbersome bureaucratization as well as ineffective management. In this regard, I want to congratulate the government, and the current Minister of Transport and his predecessor, for accepting a proposal which the Bloc Quebecois had been pushing since 1994, namely to abolish Ports Canada.
Ports Canada was a fantastic tool for pork barrelling and patronage. I remember condemning that situation and putting questions to the former president of that body, who had engaged in lavish spending. He behaved as people did when money was not a problem in Canada. He spent tons of money for suites at the hotel located in the West Edmonton Mall. People slept in the so-called Truck Room. They slept in pick-up truck boxes equipped with jacuzzi baths for six to eight people, at a cost of $280 to $300 a night. Ports Canada people slept there.
The parliamentary secretary, who represents the riding of Hamilton West, is doing the right thing by supporting my comments. I am the one who told the House about these things, and I am pleased that the government has accepted the Bloc Quebecois' request to abolish Ports Canada.
Of course, we are happy to see that the government has also accepted the Bloc Quebecois' recommendation that compulsory pilotage be maintained in Canada. Once again, with all the modesty I can muster, the Bloc Quebecois was the only party to defend pilotage on a Canada wide scale.
The parliamentary secretary and member for Hamilton West will recall a report on the future of the St. Lawrence Seaway in which the Liberal majority even recommended allowing foreign captains to navigate in Canadian waters, which are dangerous waters—look at the St. Lawrence River—without a pilot on board.
It was crazy. I told the parliamentary secretary, “You are giving me arguments to use against you. You are giving me ammunition. Do not do it, it makes no sense”.
Unfortunately, this was the recommendation the government made in its majority report. Fortunately, today's bill includes pilotage and we in the Bloc Quebecois are happy to have, once again, the assurance that the environment will be protected by qualified maritime pilots such as those we have on the St. Lawrence, especially those on the Lower St. Lawrence, in Central Quebec and in the port of Montreal, as far as Quebec is concerned.
Since I have only one minute left and since, in any event, there will be another opportunity to speak of it, I now come to certain points with which we have problems, such as the divesting of ports with an envelope to undertake unproductive improvements. The former bill mentioned $125 million. We are still waiting to hear the amount. If the federal government stops running ports, it should hand over tools so that they can be improved and modernized, as it did with airports.
There is one last point that we disagree with completely. Since the government is no longer running ports, it should also give up its power to appoint the majority of representatives in local port authorities. On the one hand, the government is saying that it is leaving, but on the other it wants to hold onto control of port authorities.
In conclusion, we are looking forward to some good work in the transport committee with respect to this bill.