Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise to address Bill C-55. I am a bit familiar with the bill. It first came into being three or four years ago in a different version. At that time I was critic of the Department of Canadian Heritage so I had the chance to explore what the government was up to at that point. As the Reform Party predicted, that legislation was ultimately defeated at the WTO.
I will go out on a limb and say that this will be pounded down again by the WTO, which will leave Canada wide open to retaliation on all kinds of trade fronts. I cannot believe the government is so imprudent that it would allow the legislation to go through and threaten in many cases other industries that are already in great peril. For instance, I point to the farm industry which is important in my riding. I will get to that in more detail later.
I want to address a couple of remarks made by my colleague who just finished speaking a minute ago. She mentioned that Time cares about Canada. I point out that it is the Time Warner corporation of the United States. I do not think anyone really believes that Time Warner Inc., a huge media conglomerate, cares about Canada. It cares about making money for its shareholders.
Incidentally that is exactly the same thing that drives Ted Rogers and the Canadian Magazine Publishers Association that are naturally in support of the bill. They do not care about Canada. They want to make a profit. If the government ensures that they can make a profit by protecting them with huge fines, contrary to what the member said we should not be very surprised. They do not care about Canada. They want to make a lot of money. That is their right and we understand it. We do not think there should be government intervention that allows them to do it. Let us see some real competition in this country.
I want to expand on that point for a moment. Recently the National Post was launched in Canada. It will be Canada's second daily national newspaper, which means that the Globe and Mail , an excellent newspaper, has some tough competition.
The Globe and Mail has improved a lot over the last several months as it has geared up for this launch. The National Post is producing an excellent newspaper. What we are seeing are the benefits of competition.
When we have competition, we have better newspapers all of a sudden. It is amazing but it happens over and over again. Everyone has to get better. I see the same thing happening on TV. We had News 1 launched on CTV and all of a sudden we see Newsworld is improving its set and changing its hosts. What would happen in Canada if we had wide open competition in our magazine industry? Canadian magazines would improve.
My hon. colleagues across the way know this is true. Otherwise they would not have reversed their stand on NAFTA. They know that real competition makes everyone stronger. They completely changed their stripes on NAFTA because they know that is true.
Now they want to have their cake and eat it too with protectionism of an industry as my colleague from Swift Current pointed out. They can cloak it in language about our sacred culture all they want, but this is about making money and my colleagues across the way know it.
I want to expand on a point I made at the outset. Under the WTO rules if a piece of legislation is struck down, goes back for a second time and is struck down, the field will be wide open for retaliation from the country which was the target of the legislation. In this case it is the United States.
My colleagues across the way have had some experience in dealing with the United States and trade problems in the past. It was not very long ago when we saw Canada get into some trouble with the U.S. over protection for poultry and dairy. As a result what did the United States do? It capped exports for durum in the west. It did not go after the industry it was concerned about. It picked another weak spot, one that it knew was politically sensitive.
What will happen when this is ultimately defeated again at the WTO? Will the Americans say they will ban our magazines coming into the United States? I do not think so. That would not be very much. They will go after wheat exports, cattle or something that has a profound impact on Canada. The government knows that. It has been warned about it for the last four or five years.
The government is going ahead anyway because the minister is so stubborn. Because she cannot spend a bunch of money any more on Canadian heritage she has to justify her existence somehow. She is going into this area willy-nilly, not caring one bit about the damage it will ultimately do to the rest of the country. She knows exactly what the outcome will be but she does not care.
When I go back to my home town of Brooks and sit in the coffee shop, in Aces Cafe; when I go to Bow Island and sit in Grandma's Kitchen; or when I go to Medicine Hat and sit in the co-op, I sit around the table with my constituents. We do not talk about the horrible tragedy of Sports Illustrated coming into Canada with Canadian advertising. They talk about the fact that they will not be able to make their payments for fertilizer, fuel and such things.
They understand what the government does not understand, that people have to make a living. When they see legislation like this which threatens their existence at a time when they are already in tremendous danger, they wonder what goes on in Ottawa. They call it the puzzle patch. I do not blame them because I am pretty puzzled about what the government is up to.
It is beyond absurd that the Liberals are preparing to endanger trade with the United States, a billion dollars a day, at a time when according to the finance minister we are facing an economic meltdown, an apocalypse of some kind. On the other hand they are endangering trade with the one partner we can count on. Eighty-five per cent of our trade is with the United States. Yet the government is setting us up for a trade war with the United States. How ridiculous can that be?
I wonder if my friends across the way, who are laughing right now, would like to come back to Brooks, Alberta, to Bow Island or to Vauxhall and sit and laugh when my constituents tell me they will not make it through the winter or be able to sow their grain in the spring. It is not a laughing matter; it is deadly serious.
The Liberals across the way had better wake up and understand that the bill has implications far beyond magazines. It does not make sense to subsidize Ted Rogers. He already has enough millions in the bank. We do not need to subsidize Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien. He already has enough money.
It is ridiculous that the government has to try to justify its existence as a player in Canadian culture by putting in place a foolhardy piece of legislation like this one. It is absurd. It is no wonder Canadians are so cynical about this place.
I encourage government members to wake up, especially rural members who know how much this can damage their own constituents. I see the industry minister here. In the past he has had some knock-down, drag-'em-outs with the cultural minister on this issue because as a businessman he knows that this is bad business.
I encourage members across the way to wake up, defeat the legislation and ask the minister not to pursue it because it will damage Canada a lot more than it could ever help it.