Mr. Speaker, to begin, I want to say that I will be sharing my time with our party’s whip, the member for Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord. I have worked with extraordinary whips, in another Parliament, but never with one like him. I am proud to congratulate him and pay tribute to him.
A moment ago, the member for Outremont said that his leader was the first and only leader of the NDP to be born in Quebec. I am a little concerned when I think that if the present leader of the NDP was born in Quebec, that might mean that the member for Outremont could not succeed him. I did some checking, and I now know that the member for Outremont was born in Ontario, and so the NDP will be able to alternate between the present leader and the next leader of the NDP.
A moment ago, I thought that Yvon Deschamps had become a member of this House. Advocating an independent Quebec in a united Canada, that is what the member for Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup said. I cannot get over hearing such a thing. Yesterday, I said that the people in the Conservative Party were a pathetic bunch. With this kind of speech, we have exactly the same thing.
Why do we have a motion like this today? I do not agree with the member for Outremont when he said that things were being done backwards. In fact, he needs to look at the verb that is the fourth word in this motion, that this House “acknowledge”. So our motion is to remind the House of Commons that we need to acknowledge. Acknowledgment implies knowing what needs to be acknowledged.
It is obvious that after 20 years, essentially nothing has been done in terms of the renewal process and offers to Quebec. Ultimately, either you stay the way you are, which is not what we want, or you take what you need to take and accept all the challenges we have to meet and you create your own country. You are not doing it against the other people’s country. That is absolutely not the case. Canada is a great democratic country, and in fact it allows us to be here to argue our views, properly and honourably, and to say to ourselves quite simply that we want to build our own country. I want my own country because I see that trying to put two nations, two such different realities, in one box is an enormous waste.
I made a list. There are two finance departments, two revenue departments, that handle our business; two departments of industry, trade, science and technology. I was the Minister for Industry, Trade, Science and Technology in Quebec and I constantly had to argue with another finance minister about industrial and trade policy. I did not understand what he was doing there. I did not understand why that very remarkable individual had another vision. Why should his vision apply to us?
There are two environment departments. Our colleague from Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie saw how limited we were at Copenhagen. The person speaking for us would say the complete opposite of what we had to propose. We have two ministers of culture. Here, that is called “Canadian Heritage”. We have two health departments, two justice departments, two labour departments. Some people are under provincial jurisdiction, others are under federal jurisdiction. We have two public safety departments, two transport departments, two communications departments, two agriculture departments, two immigration departments, a governor general and a lieutenant-governor. What a waste!
Before being here, I worked specifically in financial management, and we did not have two head offices.
We had only one and we managed things right.
I also want to take advantage of this opportunity to talk about securities and the federal government’s most recent assault on the jurisdictions of the provinces, especially Quebec’s.
The Canadian system works very well within North America and internationally. I am not saying that if our provincial securities commissions were a disaster, we should not try to do something about it, but the system works. If it ain’t broke, why fix it?
The last two examples were lauded by the Minister of Finance. There is the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada—IIROC—which covers all the provincial regulatory organizations. It even signed agreements with China, no less, to help with the regulation of securities trading.
As a result of the difficulties in Greece that we discussed last week and the computer errors last Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, financial markets were in turmoil. But Canada did quite well. The Minister of Finance himself said the system had worked very well.
What is this system? Once again, IIROC regulated it very well along with the Canadian Securities Administrators, the CSA. It worked. And who chairs the CSA? It is the president of the Autorité des marchés financiers du Québec, who has the confidence of all his colleagues in the provinces and territories. The system works.
Why do they want to add another? Why do they want to waste millions of dollars and encroach on other jurisdictions? This is what does not work in Canada. It is the incredible desire of one people to say to the other that even if a system works, they are going to show them how to screw things up.
The reason for a securities commission or the Autorité des marchés financiers du Québec is to provide regulation and be in close contact with the people who are issuing shares and purchasing them. The system will not work if the provincial commissions are all closed down and they try to have a Canada-wide agency managing the securities sector in a vacuum.
I also want to mention what they are trying to steal from Quebec. Yesterday, the Autorité des marchés financiers du Québec and the Quebec finance minister tabled a study and said they were strongly opposed to this plan, as are financial circles in Quebec. It is not just about regulation but human capital as well. The greatest asset of a securities commission is not financial capital but human capital. What is this human capital? It is the people who work in the financial sector and were trained at McGill, or UQAM, or HEC Montréal or Laval. Where do they find interesting, well-paying jobs? In Montreal, thanks to the Autorité des marchés financiers du Québec.
A securities commission means people who work in taxation, in commercial law, in securities law, in accounting and in information technology. It also means all the offices they rent.
In conclusion, I want to emphasize that there is a broad coalition of business people in Quebec. These are not fringe groups but solid business people who are telling the federal government to mind its own business until the day that Quebec is sovereign.