Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his question and tell him that he is absolutely right. He gave a very clear illustration. All the years the current Prime Minister was finance minister has made everyday life difficult for the unemployed and the provinces. The hon. member is right.
Almost no effort was made to maintain tight control over what was happening here in Ottawa. It is the unemployed, Quebec and the provinces who have had to carry the burden. We are well aware of the problems they are facing today.
Indeed, another department has just been created. But there was someone at the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. We cannot say the current minister was a junior minister. It was, after all, the Minister of Foreign Affairs who was responsible for international trade. Now this will no longer be the case. He will no longer have this tool. He can no longer use international trade to say that if people are not respecting human rights, if they are not observing acceptable international standards, then we will reduce our trade with them.
He is right on both points. We could have very easily left the department the way it was, as Prime Minister Jean Chrétien said in 1993. This achieves all the objectives. Under this umbrella are all the necessary tools for promoting greater respect for people throughout the world.
I think that creating this separate department will make that objective more costly. I have nothing against the Minister of International Trade, who has just acquired more responsibilities, but the fact remains that this is probably a more expensive approach. An even bigger concern is that there will no longer be any coordination between the two departments. International trade will no longer be used as an important instrument in foreign policy. Now the two departments will be separate. They will be two different entities.