Madam Speaker, the bottom line to the exercise is that this bill has gone through a very convoluted process.
In spite of the aggressive arm twisting of the heritage minister, the heritage ministry and the officials at the CRTC, not only with the members in the House of Commons but also with the members of the Senate, it did arrive back. It was through action by the Bloc Quebecois that the bill ended up being rejected.
This is my thesis. At exactly the same time this was taking place, there was the copyright bill which the heritage minister wanted to get through. She ended up with the full co-operation of the Bloc Quebecois in certain procedures that took place in committee. It is my thesis that the payback the Bloc Quebecois gave to the minister for achieving certain objectives for Quebec artists in the copyright bill was that it would thwart this very necessary piece of legislation.
Why is it a necessary piece of legislation? It is necessary because there is a monopoly under the existing broadcast rules and communications rules. There is a monopoly for cable. It is opening up, but it is opening up very slowly. Right at this moment if there was full competition with the cable companies by telephone and telecommunications companies, if there was not the significant price differential in getting a dish, or not being able to put a dish in certain areas of certain cities or on apartment buildings, cable companies would not get away with either negative option billing or negative marketing, the new variation they are presently into.
The Reform Party is noted for saying let us be free of government rules and regulations, particularly unnecessary rules and regulations. Therefore one might ask why the Reform Party heritage critic would have seconded this bill coming to the House of Commons.
We do not live in a perfect world. I have already described that the cable companies do not have true competition. Until such time as they have true competition, to protect the Canadian consumer we must have this kind of legislation.
I therefore find it exceptionally regrettable that the Bloc Quebecois would have voiced its rejection of this becoming a votable item in the House tonight. I note that this rejection had it not come from the Bloc without a doubt would have come from the Liberal side of the House. I just do not understand what is going on here. Why do we have a government—