Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to take part in the report stage debate on Bill C-32, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999.
This bill is a clear example of this federal government's contempt for the Canadian federal system. If we look at the respective responsibilities set out in the Constitution with regard to environmental matters, the federal government has chosen to ignore provincial responsibilities and, ironically enough, it is Quebec sovereignists who are forced to take a stand and defend the Constitution.
It is important to make things clear. With regard to the environment, people's first reaction is to say that environmental measures are necessary to protect the quality of our environment. However, it is also our responsibility to make sure that this is done by the right level of government.
In a model that respected Canadian federalism, the federal government would have fulfilled part of its responsibilities in co-operation with the provinces. It would have developed a consensus with them so that any federal legislation to be adopted in this area would be in line with the provinces' actions. It would have allowed any province that wanted to assume full responsibility to do so. And if other provinces wanted to delegate this responsibility to the federal government, they could have done so as well. But this is not what is happening.
The federal government has decided to interfere in an area where Quebec has already assumed some responsibility. This will create duplication again. What Quebecers dislike the most is that both governments are operating in the same field. This has major economic repercussions.
In the pulp and paper industry, for example, or in any industrial sector, just imagine what it will be like for businesses to submit two reports in order to comply with federal and provincial legislation. This involves additional costs. There is even an adverse effect that environmental groups have not perhaps thought of. Businesses will develop an aversion to all environmental protection measures, not necessarily because they are bad measures individually, but because their businesses will have been hampered by the presence of both levels of government in the same sectors.
That is why the Bloc Quebecois has moved a series of amendments today. The member for Jonquière is consistent with what Quebec has defended for many years in order to ensure respect for its jurisdiction, but also in order to ensure that the economic stakeholders can operate in the context of the maximum productivity and effectiveness consistent with adequate environmental regulations.
The federal government has upset the apple cart by deciding to charge right in without considering the effects on the economy as a whole.
It is handling the reduction of greenhouse gases the same way. Regulations already exist. We will find ourselves in a maze of contradicting regulations. Five or ten years from now, we may find ourselves in the same situation we were in recently, short of our international commitments because, instead of doing something about those aspects of environmental policy that are indeed its business, the federal government preferred to meddle in other jurisdictions.
Report stage gives the government a fine opportunity to accept the Bloc's amendments and to act not as a unitary, centralizing state but as a real federal state respecting the jurisdictions of all partners. It could then take into account what already exists at the provincial level and ensure that there is no duplication.
Environmental groups feel that, when promoting a clean environment and trying to bring industries to accept reasonable standards, there has to be a consensus within the community. But if there is one consensus, it is that too much government is not a good thing.
In any area, one level of government is enough, if we want to have a good relationship and partnership with companies. Two levels of government need not be involved in the protection of the environment, especially if this means that regulations would be developed behind closed doors and that businesses would have to make representations at both levels to ensure that the decisions made are appropriate.
Some argued, for example, that there would be a double safety net, but in the final analysis, this could be dangerous. Would it not be simpler to clearly define who should do what? Then we could hold the responsible level of government accountable for the results it has achieved instead of having the two levels of government accusing each other of adversely affecting results by their respective actions or by imposing an inefficient system.
The aim of the amendments we introduced is to have this legislation conform to the Canadian federal system and respect the responsibilities of the provinces. Thus, having assumed a certain leadership, provinces which have regulations will be able to continue to implement them, improve them, make them comprehensive and thus avoid what has happened in the other sectors, namely the useless overlap of federal and provincial governments.
It is rather surprising that, after all these years of criticism of overlap, we discover that in many sectors, the federal government is once again firing up its steamroller to make Canada a single model, despite the many failures it has met in the past.
Let us look at fish management policies for a moment. It was under federal government jurisdiction, but through standard application, through the—