It does not surprise me at all.
What I am trying to point out, not only to the hon. member but to members opposite, is that is not in-depth thinking. This is superficial, manipulative, opportunistic thinking which allows individuals to take advantage of a particular opportunity to suit their advantage and to suit what they want to do. It is not in the interests of the Canadian public. That is the point I am trying to make. That is why it is worthwhile debating this particular point, mundane or otherwise.
I now want to move to the fourth area which has to do with the role of crown corporations generally. This is probably one of the most significant issues for us to come to grips with which has not been dealt with in the House for quite some time.
I would encourage the parliamentary secretary to read this document. This document concerns the crown's financial institutions. It was published by the Senate Standing Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce.
That particular committee did some very in-depth thinking about corporate structures and crown corporations in particular. The report addresses the need for cost effective ways of delivering business oriented government programs to the public. To achieve these ends government must ensure that policy goals are clear, that the mandates of the agencies and employees to deliver its programs are clear, that they do not waste public resources through needless duplication of efforts within government and that the government and the private sector act in a complementary fashion whenever possible, with government doing what it does best while encouraging the private sector to do what it does best. Those are four fundamental principles that we need to observe.
It is significant that the committee came to an overall conclusion after it heard from all the witnesses and reviewed all the studies. It concluded that there is an important role for the federal government to play when the private sector fails to meet the needs of worthy business ventures. In other words, government must respond when gaps exist in the system. To this end the government needs to employ a number of strategies to fill these gaps. However, when these strategies lead to unnecessary overlap and duplication among different government agencies or to competition with the private sector the resulting inefficiency hurts everyone.
That is a pretty powerful statement and it fits right into the debate we are having this afternoon on Bill C-41.
During the last five or six years the government has been telling crown corporations that they must become self-reliant. In this case self-reliance does not mean they would manage their affairs efficiently. It goes well beyond that. It says not only must they be efficient, not only must they achieve the golden purposes of the organizations for which they were set up, they must also make a profit so they can return a dividend to the shareholder, which is the government.
This is abundantly clear upon reading the purpose and function of Canada Post, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the Canadian mint and the Business Development Bank of Canada, to mention only four. It is abundantly clear that one of the motivating factors is that to be self-reliant means to make a profit.