Mr. Speaker, I generally say that I am pleased to speak on a bill, but today I must say the emotion I am experiencing in taking part in this debate is anger. I hope that the hon. members across the way will open their ears.
The hon. member who has just spoken claims we enjoy land squabbles, any old squabble. He was unable to prove legally that what the hon. member for Rimouski—Mitis says is untrue.
I will give him two more good reasons for understanding common sense. I will try to avoid references to the provincial election, since I know that gives members opposite hives. The hon. member will, however, have a clear understanding, from the reasons I am going to give him, of why Quebeckers are going to choose a Parti Quebecois government.
The first reason, and this is indecent, is that they come here boasting of wanting to establish marine conservation areas via Heritage Canada. We have been living through a fisheries crisis, one that is still going on. Do members think the Liberal Party of Canada could be re-elected if it were to traipse around Newfoundland or Nova Scotia telling people “Well, gentlemen, we are going to protect your marine areas”. But who is taking care of the fishers who have lost their livelihood? Who is taking care of the plant workers who have lost everything? Who?
It is an absolute shame. If I were a Liberal, I would be ashamed to show my face again in the maritimes on the weekends. I would be concerned for my safety. I can understand wanting to protect everything from the marine floor up. But in between there are no fishers, no plant workers. All this to protect one species or take tourists on a boat ride. This is all very well, but what tourists will see on their arrival on the coast will be hungry people with nothing to eat, people who will have lost the dignity work brings. This is unconscionable. What members opposite are saying is downright asinine.
Second, when the government comes up with something intelligent I try to co-operate. We did it in the past. One of the most recent legislation we passed regarding fisheries and oceans was the Canada Oceans Act. One of the main thrusts of the bill was to put an end to the confusion in the management of fisheries; the fisheries minister was ordered to assume the lead role in managing all ecosystems. This bill, which has been enacted, ordered the ministers to talk to each other. However Fisheries and Oceans was still to be the lead department for everything concerning our waters.
I do not understand how the Liberal Party, the current government, can contradict itself by allowing the heritage minister to create more marine conservation areas. I remind the House of the existence of three different names. With have the Department of Canadian Heritage's marine conservation areas; the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' marine protected areas, and Environment Canada's protected offshore areas. All of them talk about conservation.
You will easily understand why fishers and plant workers are so desperate since every single time the government attempts to protect or manage something, the results are disastrous. A case in point is the collapse of the groundfish fisheries.
I urge the government. If it is really serious about preserving marine resources, the heritage minister should keep her hands off it.
DFO's biologists failed in their attempt to protect our cod. Imagine what the heritage minister's bureaucrats will do. I am scared.
I would be ashamed if I were in the Liberals' shoes this morning. What will the Liberals from the maritimes do? I have a lot of respect for my colleagues who are not afraid to speak in the House, but I have not seen one member from the maritimes rise to defend this bill. I am telling them they should get out through the back door. It is ridiculous. There is no excuse.
What will they do when they go back home? Christmas is fast approaching. There are just two weeks left before we adjourn. Those people will go back home and say “Well, gentlemen, we protected your ecosystem and, thanks to us, everything will be fine”. But what will they answer when someone stops them on the street and says “Could I have a Christmas present like everybody else? Will I have something to eat this Christmas”? It is a shame.
There were 40,000 people who benefited from TAGS. The government abandoned 20,000 of them, and it gave a cash payment to the other 20,000 and told them to go home and shut up.
With this bill, the Liberals are saying that they want to protect marine resources, but nobody is protecting these workers, nobody is protecting our fishers. It is really a shame.
I would like to say some words in English because I have some friends in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. I would like to address some comments to those people.
I would like to be sure that fishermen will call their members in their areas today and the next day to be sure that those members remember that nobody protects fishermen and plant workers now. They have to make those calls. It is incredible. We cannot let the minister do this in the fisheries areas.
Things never change. This is an unprecedented attack against provincial areas of jurisdiction. Despite what the parliamentary secretary may say, there is a conflict. When we want to solve problems, we need dialogue.
I liked what my colleague, the hon. member from Beauport—Montmorency—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île-d'Orléans, said earlier, namely that you have to be two to tango and that he had the feeling that he was dancing alone. I have the feeling that the heritage minister wants to tango, but she is stepping on our toes. This is much worse than someone who does not want to dance with a partner. She might do better sitting this one out.
What should the government have done? We saw the squabbling that went on last summer. If the minister really wanted to protect the resource, why did she not insist in cabinet that the government, through the fisheries minister, decide once and for all how the resource will be shared among the provinces? Because there were squabbles all summer long.
I remind the House that Canada is part of an international management system called NAFO. Under that system, once scientific data are received, since the method for calculating total allowable catches is already known, every country transmits its biological data and, in the end, quotas are established, because they are pre-established as a percentage, taking into account the history of each member country and proximity to the resource.
Such discussions would get things going between Canadians and Quebeckers and we would stop squabbling. Instead of doing that, the government introduces a bill that will turn everything upside down. No one here in this House is defending workers at this time, and this is unacceptable. I may have an opportunity to repeat again, because I do not recall what stage the bill is at right now.