Madam Speaker, as I was saying, this is report stage of this bill. My understanding is that the Bloc amendment would not address the issues that the member for Sarnia—Lambton just alluded to, that these are federally regulated industries which are involved and therefore it is necessary to provide protection, even in Quebec, to have this bill apply in the way in which it was intended.
It is our position that in principle we agree with the philosophy involved here, which is to put the onus on companies, the providers of services, to obtain the consent before offering a service or starting to bill for that service. That is a reasonable proposal to use and therefore we are supportive of that concept.
We understand that there may be some problems with it and I will talk about that in a moment, but currently the negative option procedure as we know it puts the onus on consumers to advise suppliers of a service, for example a television company offering a cable service, that they do not want that service, otherwise it would continue and the consumer would continue to be billed.
In principle I think it should be the other way around. I know that is the intent of this bill. This would apply to federally regulated industries and therefore banks and telecommunications companies would be involved. We know that there may be some consequences in requiring these institutions to obtain that consent.
I do not think that it would be a serious matter. There are new methods, including electronic options through the Internet and various other ways available to those companies to obtain consent, but in the event that it is too onerous on these companies and provides too much of a problem, the member who proposed this private member's bill has built into it a section which says that if that were to be the case, for example if a bank were not able to do this without incurring a tremendous amount of debt to provide that service, there is a provision to exempt those particular areas out of the bill.
The minister involved in that particular category, who might be, for example, the Minister of Industry or the Minister of Canadian Heritage in regard to telecommunications, will be given the power to exempt those companies in the event that it is too onerous on them.
The bill is in proper balance. What it means is that the minister involved would have to justify before the Parliament of Canada why that exemption is being given. I think that is a good check and balance which will be used very rarely. It seems to me that the onus will then be on the company to try to obtain this consent. That is a very good provision in the bill.
The negative option part of it would be reversed and it would be up to the companies to obtain the consent necessary before they expanded packages and provided that service.
Why would the Bloc be opposed to this and why would any consumers in Quebec be opposed to the idea? I have difficulty understanding that, although I understand the member saying that it is provided right now. I have the counterbalance from the member for Sarnia—Lambton who says that is not the case.
In case the member for Sarnia—Lambton is right, I think this should apply to Quebec. If it is already covered in its legislation, what is the argument involved?
Although it is a free vote on a private member's bill, I am supportive of this as the critic for industry. It seems to me it is a good bill and should be considered. I will be voting against the amendment put forward by the Bloc at report stage.