Mr. Speaker, in order to make a good investment decision,one needs to have entry points in foreign lands and good connections with respect to the actual welcome awaiting various projects.
I did not say much about it in my presentation, but in my opinion, there is a problem with ease and consistency in human resources management. There was very good interaction with the consular offices, with the various services abroad, that enabled us, among investors and among consular services, to have a good interaction. What the government is trying to do is to divide these sections, no more, no less.
When one needs to obtain a certain number of visas, one must deal with the consular offices. Economic development and foreign investment should go hand in hand with international relations. Thus we must aim to have significant integration among the various departments. The same example holds for immigration.
If it were decided to completely sever this kind of relationship between the immigration department and the foreign affairs department, it would cause some problems, because the consulates abroad have the lion's share of responsibility for issuing visas.
Thus, when there is interaction, either in international trade or in immigration, we must ensure that the services provided by the foreign affairs department abroad can be provided to the various services.
It is clear that, in the case of exports, this separation between the Department of International Trade and the Department of Foreign Affairs is a long way from facilitating investments while respecting human rights.
It is clear that it does not facilitate things environmentally either. We need to have all the information. Many crown corporations often try to avoid their environmental responsibilities. We will probably see changes in the future to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, but it is clear than when so-called housekeeping changes are made, as we see today, it has a direct impact on the environmental assessment of various projects to be carried out abroad.