Mr. Speaker, it is with pleasure that I rise today to speak to the motion of my colleague, the member for Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup.
My colleague had two good reasons to propose this motion. First, he wanted the government to act on the motion proposing to help the textile and clothing industries adopted by this House on October 5, 2005. Second—and we have heard it often from witnesses at the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology—, the textile industry is being torn apart and the clothing industry is losing its shirt. We have to realize the pernicious effects of not being able to compete with some countries.
The clothing industry includes hosiery plants as well as clothing and clothing accessory manufacturers. Of all provinces, Quebec was the most affected in Canada. Its clothing industry lost 40% of its jobs. In 1988, there were 90,000 jobs in this sector. Today, there are 36,000. Between 1995 and 2005, the industry dropped from first to eighth place amongst manufacturing employers in Quebec. Dropping from first to eighth place, it is quite distressing.
The reason this issues touches me so deeply is that the Haute-Yamaska region has the most manufacturing activity in all the MRC of Montérégie. More than one person in three works in a factory. Consequently, I am very interested to be here and to speak about this industry.
A distinction must be made between the apparel industry and the textile industry. The textile industry is made up of spun yarn factories, woven fabrics factories and textile finishing factories. Furthermore, it produces also textiles, which includes factories that produce processed textiles, household items, floor coverings and industrial products.
In Quebec today, this industry represents 20,000 jobs, compared to 24,000 in 2000 and 36,000 in 1988; that is a loss of 16,000 jobs. The textile industry is going through a crisis, and it must redirect its production. In the textile sector, the prospects are best in artificial arteries and hearts, airbags and parachutes. All these activities require a lot of research and development. We have heard loud and clear the message conveyed by the people who appeared before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. They indicated that they valued research and development and that, in order to help them, the government should invest in the search for new development niches.
I could compare that with the government's responsibility concerning the modernization of the industry. Safeguards must be used. Such safeguards are provided in trade agreements to give the industries a few years of respite that they need to change their focus. They have to be given a chance in matters of research and development to see what they can do. But they need time for that.
Ottawa has never supported the industry. The federal government has a big zero on its report card, and the results of the Conservatives are below zero. The government never tried to discuss or make a deal with China about a potential cap on Chinese import increases. The government never tried to improve assistance programs to speed up the industry's modernization.
There were some programs. There were CATIP and CANtex, but the maximum allowable was $100,000. What can an industry do with $100,000? It can change its transport truck, and nothing else.
Among other cuts announced last fall by the Conservatives, $25 million was taken out of CANtex. The programs assisting the textile industries were cut. Who did that? The Minister of Industry. It was a Quebec minister who stabbed the Quebec industry once again. Another Quebec minister, the Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, did not say a word to prevent this. The Quebec Conservatives are not very useful.
On December 12, 2006, the Standing Committee on International Trade urged the government to limit textile and clothing imports and begin negotiations to that effect with China. The government did not do anything. Just recently, on February 6, 2007, the Standing Committee on Industry, Natural Resources, Science and Technology tabled its report on the future of the manufacturing sector. The committee indicated that textile and clothing industries were on the verge of collapse and called on the government to abandon its laissez-faire policy.
However, today again, the Conservatives from Quebec who, last week, let down the Quebec aerospace industry, are showing that they are not only useless, but that their approach is harmful by now betraying the textile and clothing industries.
What about solutions? We often hear the Conservatives say that the Bloc criticizes but never proposes any solution. Let me suggest some solutions: first, let us allow clothing made abroad with Canadian textiles to enter duty free; let us impose stricter rules of origin on less developed countries; let us negotiate Canada's entry in agreements reached between the United States and Latin America; let us adopt a buy local policy that is compliant with international agreements.
Then, we talked about older workers. What can we do for them? The Conservatives set up a program for a period of one year. The Montreal and the Quebec City regions were excluded from this program. We know that in Montreal, there are several textile plants and clothing plants. But, I think that these people were forgotten, even if they worked all their lives for the growth of Quebec. When it is time to help them end their career decently, they are left aside. They are being told to retrain. How can you retrain 55 year old people with little education? I do not know. I do not understand the approach of the Conservatives on this issue.
The Bloc Québécois is in favour of the former program for older worker adjustment, POWA, which gave workers aged 55 and older the opportunity to earn a decent salary, at least until they received their pension. That program should be brought back in order to help these workers do something meaningful with their life.
Other solutions are also a step in the right direction. In both cases, the workers have had little schooling, as I was saying. Safeguards provided for in trade agreements—continuing along the same lines—ensure that import tariffs are maintained on clothing and textiles produced in Canada by introducing quotas on Chinese imports, under the protocol on China's accession to the WTO. When China joined the WTO, it was agreed that countries could limit the increase of Chinese imports by introducing temporary quotas, in order to prevent certain industries from being decimated as a result of this industrial giant's membership.
The United States and the European Union held discussions with China. They agreed to place a ceiling on imports of Chinese textiles and clothing. Canada did nothing. The government failed to act, with the result that, after China joined the WTO in 2002, its exports of clothing to Canada rose by approximately $1.8 billion, an increase of 86%. What will it be tomorrow?
We must adopt an international policy that will prevent discount offshoring, by working to include in trade agreements the universal minimum standards recognized in international agreements on the fundamental rights of workers and environmental protection.
Labelling is of great interest. How can we determine if we are buying a Canadian product? It is not on the label. You can look all you want in all the shops for a Canadian-made good, but you will not find one. You can look high and low, but to no avail. The first thing to do would be to identify the origin of the product.