Mr. Speaker, I rise today to participate in the debate on Bill C-17, an act to amend the Telecommunications Act and the Teleglobe Canada Reorganization and Divestiture Act.
We know that as part of its WTO and GATS basic telecommunications commitments, Canada agreed to substantially liberalize its international services market. These commitments include, among other things, ending Teleglobe Canada's monopoly on overseas traffic next October 1 and removing traffic routing rules for all international services by December 31, 1999. Bill C-17 is the legislation that puts these commitments into legal effect.
I would like to begin today by saying a few words about Teleglobe Canada. Most of us will know that Teleglobe Canada provides international telecommunications services for Canadians by routing calls to and from approximately 240 countries and territories. The fiscal year 1996 was a year of unprecedented growth for Teleglobe as a global provider of overseas telecommunications services.
Teleglobe has announced that it has reached major milestones in its international development and in the expansion of its customer base. This was achieved through—and I think we all agree—intensive sales records, geographic expansion, new product launches and the optimization of Teleglobe's global network.
As a result of all this, in 1996 traffic and earnings for Teleglobe increased substantially and its market capitalization doubled. In addition, Teleglobe International has established its presence as a network operator in three of the largest long distance markets in the world: the U.S., Germany and the U.K. I am sure that in 1998 we will see Teleglobe continue its U.S. expansion and develop new traffic sources in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Teleglobe, as we know, views this legislation and the liberalization of this market as extremely positive for both consumers and industry participants since it believes it will stimulate further innovation and demand for international services. This is in the context of Teleglobe losing its monopoly and being thrown fully into what is now a very, very competitive international market.
Teleglobe is clearly poised for the new business opportunities that are resulting from this continuing trend. Teleglobe is indeed a company of which Canadians should be proud. It has been made clear this is a company that is not simply content with just surviving in the global economy. It wants to lead the field of telecommunications, and this enthusiastic, positive and optimistic message comes through loud and clear from Teleglobe.
I will comment on how important this positive approach is as we in Canada go about building a first class economy capable of taking on and beating the world and yet at the same time maintaining a desirable level of social cohesion and community. This of course is not an easy task. I come at this question fresh from our experiences in my home province and in the belief that what has happened in Saskatchewan under the NDP government of Premier Romanow presents useful lessons to Canada as a whole.
I will relate a few words about how we might more effectively co-ordinate our economy as we move into this new global environment, or not so new global environment now. The economy of one small prairie province is not the Canadian economy. But a province that went from the brink of bankruptcy to the first balanced budget in Canada, which has had consistently the lowest unemployment rate in the country and leads Canada's economic indicators across the board must have done something right.
It started from the premise that at heart society represents a commitment by those in it to share in the future together, shared opportunity and shared responsibility. This has always been the Canadian way and must—without being Pollyannaish—be our guide as we strive to build a modern world class economy in Canada, as we strive to prepare to meet the economic challenges of the new millennium and to tackle the social and economic challenges of injustice and inefficiency, of mass unemployment and poverty.
This must be done in an increasingly integrated global market, not by turning the clock back, not by evading the changes that have taken place in the global economy or even by just tolerating them, but by understanding, mastering and exploiting them to our advantage, by taking charge of change and making it work for all of us and by ensuring Canadians are equipped to prosper with change.
This question could be merely rhetorical but what should we be doing differently? What will work? It is of critical importance for our national mindset for us all to be outward looking, optimistic and confident. An important part of becoming world leaders is the confidence that we can do it, but we have to keep raising the bar and clearing it. Teleglobe is a good example of that approach.
Here is what Saskatchewan did which is entirely in keeping with what the new labour government in Britain has done and indeed with what social democrats all over the world have done. It is a partnership process driven by the belief that we are all in this together, this being the task of building a world class economy and we being governments, business, labour, communities, educational institutions, aboriginal peoples, all of us. No more sterile debates about public purses, private market versus state, employer versus employee, regulation or deregulation, them and us.
What has happened in Saskatchewan? As I say, I recommend this approach to the federal government. Stakeholders in partnership discussed and mapped out a vision, a future for that economy, not a plan but rather a direction and a set of goals based on identified strengths and weaknesses. These goals included job creation targets and what the economy should look like in 10 years.
Through the same partnership process came the identification of what was needed in order to get there, how to strengthen our strengths and address our weaknesses. Once again on partnership, assigning who could best do what was needed: government, private sector, educational institutions, et cetera. It has been a process of vision and tasks to attain that vision crafted in partnership, and it has worked.
Yogi Berra, the famous baseball wit said “if you don't know where you're going, you might end up somewhere else”. I would recommend this partnership approach, which is in place in all successful economies around the world, to the industry minister and to the federal government. We need not just consultation but real partnership so we know where we are going and how we are going to get there.
There is a fair bit to do as we know. Canada's wealth creating base is not large enough. Our levels of investment in skills are insufficient and we have a significant innovation gap. We all know only too well the crushing consequences of poverty and unemployment and underemployment as examples. If governments cannot solve these problems alone, then neither can the private sector, nor can any of the stakeholders alone.
A modern and effective economic approach needs to provide the framework in which these challenges can be met and conquered and to build the partnerships necessary for success. It is time to break out of the past and address today's and tomorrow's questions with contemporary answers.
The federal government has a critically important activist role in this regard, activist but different from in the past. We must continue to ensure that we have the very best of opportunities for Canadians in terms of job opportunities and the very best opportunities for those who create those jobs in our economy, the private sector.
While I believe that the market economy is the best mechanism generally for allocating the vast majority of resources and markets and, therefore, can and do work in the public interest, I do not think that in all circumstances they guarantee it. Here is a good example. The market economy is in the public interest, but the public interest is not satisfied just by having a market economy.
There are public policy goals that the market cannot achieve. We all know that: education, health care, regional policy. The trick of course is to ensure that government intervention works to better achieve its purpose than with the market actions alone.
This legislation is an example. While Canada has liberalized its telecommunications market, there is still clearly a need for rules to ensure an orderly marketplace and to ensure that the objectives of the Telecommunications Act continue.
I think it is fair to say that WTO and the GATS agreement and the accompanying liberalization of Canada's international telecommunications services market will actually result in the entry of many more companies, both domestic and foreign, into the already competitive Canada-U.S. market and Canada-overseas market.
Our concern here is that these developments, along with the long-term downward trend and long-distance carriage council, make it increasingly possible for companies to circumvent Canadian telecommunications policy and therefore we need to ensure that we guard against that.
I think it is fair to say that some of the clauses in the bill, clauses 1, 3 and 7, would give the CRTC authority to introduce the licensing regime to ensure that our telecommunications policies are respected and for acting competitive safeguards to be put in place to prevent operators from exploiting differences and the different degrees that market openness exists between countries to gain an unfair advantage.
Let me conclude in the minute that I have left to indicate that Bill C-17 flowed from a number of free trade agreements and free trade type agreements that it puts into place to the commitments that Canada made in those deals.
These are agreements that ignore critically important issues such as the environment and labour standards and the protection of social programs, all very serious concerns to all Canadians. As a result, we seem not to have learned very much from these activities as these circumstances that are in the MAI show. That being said—