Mr. Speaker, we have just seen a perfect example of Liberal rhetoric. It is about change, the need to improve things. “We are very much in favour of breweries. We absolutely need to take care of microbreweries. It is important, but we will not do it today. We will do it next year, the year after or after all the microbreweries have disappeared”.
This is all so hypocritical. This rhetoric is out of touch with reality. People like the Minister of Justice said these amendments were necessary. It is not the members of the Bloc Quebecois who said so. It is the president of a microbrewery, who lives in today's reality, the president of Unibroue, who said it.
If the federal government thinks these microbreweries are so important, why does it not include them in the legislation? In Quebec, when something is important, it is dealt with immediately. When it is not that important or we do not want to deal with it immediately, we say, “We need further study. We need to evaluate. We will create committees and try to find a way to help in the long run”.
As to why and how the Liberals were influenced, my position remains the same. There is no reason today—based on the arguments given by the government—not to act immediately, other than the fact that the specific interests of the government, of the Liberal Party of Canada, require things to be done in this fashion. This is totally unacceptable and yet this is how this government is behaving.
The government is invoking the fact that there is a minor amendment missing in the bill and that the legislation does not deal with beer to justify its despicable attitude, an attitude whereby the specific interests of the Liberal Party of Canada take precedence. This is unacceptable.
The hon. member asked me to give my views on the rest of the bill. I support the rest of the bill. I find it interesting. However, the government's attitude regarding beer is totally unacceptable and irresponsible.
On the one hand, the Liberal Party of Canada, the Liberal government is saying “We believe it is important to foster the development of microbreweries”, but, on the other hand, it is allowing a gap that is very beneficial for certain beers from the United States, by allowing them to be distributed by major Canadian breweries. This is unacceptable corporate behaviour on the part of the government.
Liberal members are all aware of this, but are saying nothing, because they were told how to behave when the chair of the committee was appointed. The order came from senior departmental officials. It came from the Liberal government's way of doing things, a way that is totally unacceptable, that does not respect democracy and that does not at all care about the public interest.
In this instance, you are only protecting specific interests. And you will be judged on your actions at the next general election. In this case as in many others, your attitude is designed to protect corporate interests, as if you were members of a company's board of directors, instead of being government members.