Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that it is finally my turn to speak. You saw how anxious I was to participate in this discussion on the motion introduced by my colleague, the industry critic from the Bloc Québécois.
This government has an ideological blindness which is beyond understanding. Several thousand manufacturing jobs in Quebec and the rest of Canada are being sacrificed for a laissez-faire economic approach, for economic natural selection, simply because of an ideological obsession. I think this is unfortunate. Earlier, I heard the member for Lévis—Bellechasse talk about Advantage Canada and its great plans. He tried to convince us that everything was fine. Unfortunately, this is not about verbal sparring, it is about the lives of families who worked for years in the manufacturing sector who are losing their jobs and who are in difficult financial and emotional situations. This can even lead to divorce and family crises, among other things. It is not a joke. It is a serious matter, and frankly, I think it is distasteful that members of the government—like the member for Lévis—Bellechasse did earlier—emphasize that their government has lowered corporate taxes and say that the problem is solved.
We are talking here about companies and people who are losing their jobs in the manufacturing sector. They work for companies that are no longer profitable and therefore close their doors. If they are not profitable, they do not pay any taxes, and if they do not pay any taxes, tax cuts will not do them any good.
The government could make some very simple decisions. The previous Liberal government could also have done so, but chose not to. The Bloc Québécois has been fighting for years to get these decisions made and will continue doing so. There is still hope. We have fought on many fronts, including the fiscal imbalance, our recognition as a nation, recently the reimbursement of the GST to school boards, and a number of others. The battles we have waged for many years are finally beginning to bear fruit. We will continue, therefore, the fight to protect our manufacturing industry, and we hope that it will ultimately be successful and the government will finally listen to reason, as it did in some of our other struggles.
One of the measures suggested in this motion is very simple. It would allow clothing manufactured abroad from Canadian textiles to be imported duty free. This is totally consistent with the international rules. We have the right to abolish duties on certain materials. This measure would stimulate the Quebec and Canadian textile industries. These are simple, rather inexpensive steps that the government could take, but it refuses to do so.
The International Trade Tribunal has handed down a series of decisions that the government never followed up. People from this tribunal appeared before the Standing Committee on Finance this very day. We spoke with them. My hon. colleague and I questioned them.
This tribunal has made decisions including recommendations to the government that would have enabled it to adopt protective measures without contravening our international treaties. We asked how many of these measures had actually been implemented. The answer was none. The purpose of the International Trade Tribunal is to make recommendations of this kind, but none of the protective measures perfectly in keeping with our international commitments has ever been implemented.
I know the Conservatives will say that the Liberals never implemented these decisions and the Liberals will say that the power rests with the government. They pass the ball back and forth but the reality is that, while they try to assign blame, our manufacturing industry is experiencing great difficulties and is in serious trouble.
I almost regret using the term “manufacturing industry” because it might lead some members of this House to believe that it is an abstract concept, as though the manufacturing industry were an entity that exists in and of itself. I would like to remind all members of this House that when I say “manufacturing industry” I want them to think of the workers who make a living in these industries. I want them to think of the spouses who rely on their partners to survive. I want them to think of these families' children who need the income to live in dignity. That is what we are discussing. This is not a debate about semantics, an ideological or philosophical debate. We must act now.
In closing, we must take steps to protect the industry so that as few jobs as possible are lost. Then we must put in place a program for older workers, the POWA that the Bloc Québécois has been calling for for so long now. It is important to do so. If we are unable to limit the number of jobs lost we must at least help citizens and older workers by providing a real program enabling them to bridge the gap between the end of their employment and the start of their retirement. These programs do not currently exist. In its first throne speech, the government promised, as a result of a Bloc Québécois sub-amendment, to get the ball rolling. It announced the introduction of a program on several occasions, but it only came up with a requalification program.
In the manufacturing industries, in many cases, when a company closes its doors in a remote region, in Quebec or elsewhere in Canada, it is often in one industry towns where people work at the same plant their entire lives. Sometimes, both members of a couple work at the plant and lose everything. It is not a matter of whether we can provide them with training to go work at another plant or in another sector because there are no other jobs in these regions. Furthermore, these people are just a few years from retirement.
When travelling through Quebec—and people are also going through this in my riding in Montreal—I have seen these people end up with nothing just a few years before their retirement. Once their EI benefits run out, they have to sell all their belongings, their assets, their home and everything else only to end up on social assistance.
I think that for someone who has worked their entire life, who paid taxes their entire life, who contributed to our society their entire life, this is a sad end and it is too bad the government is abandoning them at a time like this.
In the worst case scenario, this program would cost roughly $120 million across Canada. This is not a lot for a federal budget when there are surpluses of several billion dollars, and this would help maintain the dignity of the people who worked their entire life to build Quebec. The respectful thing to do is to implement this program that already existed and was abolished by the Liberals. The Conservatives promised they would reinstate it, but they still have not done so. We are still waiting and we will continue to fight for this.