Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of the people of Surrey Central to speak in opposition to Bill C-55, as well as the Senate amendments.
However, I want to speak in support of my colleague's amendment, the amendment put forward by the heritage critic of the official opposition.
Bill C-55 concerns advertising services supplied by foreign periodical publishers. The heritage minister, right from the beginning, has mismanaged the bill.
If enacted, the bill will prevent Canadian advertisers from advertising in foreign magazines that come into Canada. This is not a heritage matter; it is an international trade matter.
The international trade minister and the heritage minister are fighting over the issue. The trade minister wants to do his job but the heritage minister will not let him do it. She goes so far as to almost ruin our trade relations with the U.S., our greatest trading partner.
When the minister bans Canadian advertisers from selling their goods and services in foreign magazines, the minister is telling Canadian advertisers that when it comes to freedom of speech they are second class citizens. The Surrey business community which I represent should not be told how to run its business. Businesses should not be prevented from doing anything that will grow their businesses, make them more prosperous and enable them to hire more workers or maintain the present jobs they have created in the small business industry.
In the government's attempt to control the American magazine industry, it is trampling on the rights of Canadian firms from coast to coast to coast. Why should Canadian firms allow the heritage minister to dictate to them where they can or cannot advertise their goods or services?
Did the minister consider the damage that would be caused to these firms? I am sure she did not. Did the heritage minister consider the damage that would be done by the retaliation promised by the Americans if Bill C-55 is passed? I am sure she did not. She is not concerned about the fate of small businesses and their lack of advertising opportunities. Once again we are experiencing the arrogance of this weak Liberal government with no vision.
Before I go further, Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Calgary East.
The big question is how much are these subsidies to the industry going to cost Canadian taxpayers? We asked the minister this question but did not get an answer. Canadians deserve to know the answer.
Canada's small businesses know what they need to grow and to be prosperous. They know how to run their businesses. They do not need to be dictated to and to have their freedom restricted by the government. The government continues to kill jobs in Canada.
It is not bad enough that Bill C-55 will hurt our economy and our firms, what is worse is the minister pushed the Americans into promising retaliation if Bill C-55 is enacted. She is going ahead with Bill C-55 anyway without knowing what the effect will be on Canadian businesses.
This is the same minister who insisted that she would abolish the GST in order to get elected. That promise was broken and she was forced to abandon her stubborn ways and seek re-election because the GST was a lot more powerful than she was. The business community across Canada suffers from the effect of the GST and the heritage minister has already shown us that she cannot help us with the GST problem. There should be no mistaking the American promise of a billion dollar trade embargo for a Liberal GST promise.
The Americans are not fooling. They are not desperate Liberal members of parliament who will say anything to get elected. They mean what they say. The Americans are quite serious when they say they will hurt our economy badly with trade retaliation in the steel, plastics, textiles, lumber and agricultural industries. The heritage minister has poked the American elephant with a sharp stick. The American elephant has already warned her that the American elephant does not fear mice or former rat packers.
What purpose will the minister serve with this bill if she succeeds in having Canada slammed by an American trade embargo? What is the point? What is the use of Bill C-55 if we are slammed by a trade embargo by our biggest and oldest trading partner? A billion dollars of trade a day; it is going to affect our economy.
Why is the government not more concerned about building trade rather than damaging trade? Why would the government allow the heritage minister to pursue her policy, which is Bill C-55, that promises to be so terribly destructive to our trade? Let me tell the minister that when she lives in a glass house she should not throw stones at others.
There is another important aspect I would like to bring to the attention of the House. As a multicultural country, many of our ethnic communities or minorities rely on foreign publications to keep the Canadian communities in regular communication. The heritage minister's Bill C-55 will restrict the advertising that Canadian firms can buy in these foreign publications. Why would the minister be so negligent as to penalize these diverse and sometimes small ethnic communities? These communities do not have their own newspapers, magazines or other publications.
The heritage minister has set Canada up for U.S. trade retaliation risking the jobs of thousands of Canadians and our country's standard of living. The Senate cannot fix this bill with its amendments. It cannot repair the damage done to our trade relations with the Americans because of what the heritage minister has done. When she banned Canadian advertisers from selling their goods and services in foreign magazines, the minister told Canadian advertisers that when it comes to freedom of speech they are second class citizens.
Bill C-55 should be opposed because it puts an unreasonable limit on free speech and freedom of the press. Furthermore, Bill C-55 impinges on property rights and freedom of contract as granted by the 1960 Canadian bill of rights and common law.
Bill C-55 is not worth the potential damage it will do to our economy and our job market. Bill C-55 is not worth the risk to Canada's international reputation as an advocate of rules based trade that is supported and promoted by international trade tribunals for settling trade disputes.
Therefore, I oppose this bill and I tell Canadians that this bill is damaging Canadian trade relations and Canada's trade.