Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this bill today. I would first like to congratulate my colleague from Terrebonne—Blainville on her speech on this matter. She has been waiting for several days for the opportunity to voice her opposition to a bill that is aimed at separating and dividing responsibilities between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of International Trade.
For some time, several months in fact, since this bill was introduced on December 7, 2004, the government has been trying to convince us that it is nothing but an administrative and technical bill intended just to regularize an obvious situation.
I understand that on December 12, 2003, the government enacted an order via the governor in council, which divided responsibilities between two departments, and that this bill is to make that order official. But it is not true that this debate must focus only on an administrative reorganization.
Anyone trying to approach the debate and discussion on that basis fail to see the interrelationships between the mandate and vision of a foreign affairs department and the role an international trade department ought to play in this regard.
By clarifying and dividing these two departmental entities, by splitting responsibilities between two departments, by taking away from International Trade the mandate for foreign affairs, and the related powers and responsibilities the government is ignoring debate that is of great concern to the people of Quebec and Canada.
It concerns our view of the role our governments must play in the context of increased globalization, opening markets and economic interrelations. This is what we want, of course, but having our rights protected as well. Rights are fundamental for those of us on this side of the House. I am talking of workers' rights, which must be protected fully, of environmental rights, so often challenged in one court or another in the name of free markets. I am also talking of human rights, which must be protected and which are very frequently the victims of a system focussed solely on free markets.
By dividing up the roles of the Department of Foreign Affairs and of International Trade, the government is endorsing this vision. It enshrined it with its order in council of December 12, 2003, and is enshrining it with this bill. We need to keep in mind what the role of the Canada Department of International Trade was: promoting international trade, investment partnerships and trade and economic policy.
We need to realize that there are new concerns and new paradigms emerging, not only in Quebec society, but in this changing world. They are intended to develop new trade and a new type of investment.
First, fair trade has taken off in the past few years thanks to people who want to have goods, products and merchandise on the market that respect workers rights.
It seems essential in processing products that we be able to establish basic ethical rules. When we look only at trade, we forget these important aspects. When we talk about International Trade Canada and investment partnerships, we forget that a new type of investment is emerging, what is called responsible investment. These are aspects that could have been integrated into a foreign affairs policy. Unfortunately, the Canadian government has decided to divide the department in two.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has been reorganized many times, beginning with changes made by the Trudeau government in 1971. Then, in 1981 and 1982, there was a reorganization that integrated a range of activities from those of CIDA, to industry, to trade and commercial policy. The Department of Foreign Affairs became the Department of External Affairs and International Trade.
My colleagues indicated clearly that this bill to divide the entities presents two fundamental drawbacks. First, there is the problem of consistency. How, by dividing two activities that should be integrated, will this situation improve consistency in terms of the management of human affairs and, especially, efficiency?
As for the second drawback, I want my colleagues to explain the attempts we so often see in this Parliament. In fact, the government has introduced the bill we are considering here before it has even undertaken this essential review of Canadian foreign policy.
The federal government is behaving the same way about international trade as it about the missile defence shield project. In both cases, no consideration is given to the issues related to national defence and international trade in an integrated foreign affairs policy in Canada. It prefers to make decisions the wrong way round, when we should, as the government committed to doing several years ago, already have reviewed Canadian foreign policy, which is essential.
On this side of the House, we believe that this bill is premature and hasty. We could have had a debate on this. It would have been healthy and would have allowed us to examine the role the Department of Foreign Affairs will have to play in the future. Why are we not considering its role in the context of emerging markets and globalization? That would have been an interesting public debate, on Canadian foreign policy. Instead, this decision was made in December 2003, resulting in the bill before us.
The same is true with regard to the missile defence shield project. Decisions are made about national defence, although we have yet to review foreign policy.
The government's public decision-making technique, which consists in making decisions in silos instead of using an integrated approach, will result in shameful inconsistency. This inconsistency will not only hurt Canada internationally, but also as regards the various issues that come under federal jurisdiction.
So, we condemn this inconsistency in human resource management, and the fact that this decision was made precipitously. We also condemn this decision because it violates an internationally recognized principle, which is to increase human rights protection in the world.
We know that, in the coming years, the opening of markets will increase trade including, among others, with countries such as China, which is experiencing strong economic growth. This means that countries like Canada—as we found out in recent weeks with the textile issue—may have to expand their markets. This will lead to increased trade. However, this trade must not focus only on the exchange of goods, it must also include the protection of human rights.
Currently, exports account for 40% of our gross domestic product. This was not the case in the 1980s, when they only accounted for 24%. So, we need a policy that will integrate the protection of human rights.
As I said before, trade should also include emerging new types of trade. A new type of trade that is emerging is fair trade, which integrates a foreign affairs policy. There are new investments of course, and these are called—in case the government party opposite does not yet know it—responsible investments. These investments are not only motivated by economic and commercial imperatives; they also take into consideration the protection of the rights of workers. This is an added value that cannot be calculated in dollars alone, because it also includes human value and the respect of those who are involved in the processing of these products.
It is wrong to say that WTO rules are the only ones that should apply to trade. There is an added human value and it is important to take it into consideration.
So, for all these reasons, we are opposed to this bill, which is unacceptable to us. Again, it is unacceptable because it reflects one of the countless decisions on international relations that have been made by the government since the new Prime Minister has been in office, without a true review of Canada's foreign policy.
That is why we will not be supporting this bill. We wish that, under different circumstances, decisions would not be made in silos. Instead, we should be looking at the direction Canada wants to take in terms of human rights and how it plans to make its contribution to international assistance. It is incorrect, however, to say that we will support a bill designed to dissociate international trade from foreign affairs.