Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to what I think is a valid initiative and something we should get behind. We have talked a bit about this already earlier today, when we were talking about the bill from the Senate on corruption.
What is astounding about the current government is that even when there is a good idea, the Conservatives have to put a partisan political veil on it. I am going to diverge from my notes for a second here and respond a bit to the parliamentary secretary's comments.
He said that the government cannot support this bill. Let us remember that this is a private member's bill, so I encourage every member of the Conservative Party to look at this with an independent lens, to look at what the rest of the world is doing and saying, and to remember that it is a private member's bill and that they can vote, hopefully with their conscience, and represent their constituents on this issue. I know many of their constituents would be in favour of this bill.
In fact, when they look at who is supporting this bill and this initiative, they would be hard pressed to find constituents in any of their ridings who would be against it. What are they against? They would be against transparency, which our friends south of the border would be in favour of, and against the whole focus of the upcoming G8 conference.
If the Conservatives have problems with the bill, they should at least bring forward amendments. However, what the Conservatives are saying is that because it does not come from them but from someone else, they will kill it immediately. That is the philosophy of the current government.
To address the parliamentary secretary's comments, he should discern, and we sure do, the difference between the reputation of Canada as a country versus what is happening to our reputation because of the government. It is what happens when we do things as inane as what we did at the United Nations this past fall, where we hectored and lectored. Even though our Prime Minister was in the very city where people were addressing the General Assembly, we instead sent our Minister of Foreign Affairs, who got to speak to a nearly empty hall and hectored and lectored everyone in the hall. Then the Conservatives wonder why we are not getting along with our allies and others and are not on the Security Council.
However, on the bill, it looks to the future and says that when Canadian companies are doing their affairs abroad, they should be entirely transparent in their transactions. That is exactly what we need to see from Canadian companies, and interestingly, Canadian companies want to do it. My colleague and I, as he mentioned, had a meeting with the representative from the U.K. who is looking at organizing the meeting for the G8, and there were also representatives from the mining industry. They were saying they want to get on board with this approach. The government does not. Why? It is because it did not come from the government.
I am going to bring forward to second reading, hopefully in this next year, a bill on conflict minerals. My bill, like the one from my colleague from the Liberal Party, is based on the Dodd–Frank initiative from south of the border. We think it is smart to get in line with some of these initiatives that our allies are getting in line with because it is good for business and good for our reputation abroad to say that as a country we are going to be responsible actors abroad, nothing more and nothing less.
The Conservatives are so stuck in the past that they cannot even look at a good idea and say, “If we have problems with it, let's work it out.” That attitude is astonishing to constituents when they hear that there is a good idea being put in front of Parliament and that in fact it is a private member's initiative. I had thought that certainly members of the Reform Party thought that it was a really good idea to empower private members' initiatives, that they would actually be able to look at it on the basis of the merit of the idea and have a debate, have a vote and get behind it if they thought it was good for the country and for their constituents. However, what we see here and what was demonstrated by the parliamentary secretary is what we see time and time again. Why could there not be amendments? They could go to committee and do it, but no, we do not even get to go past the first reading point.
I hope the Conservatives remember this, because they will know that someday they will not be in government. One day they will have to take a look at how Parliament is functioning, and people will remind them of how they behaved. I hope they remember that, because right now we are seeing good ideas getting shut down. This is a good idea, and it seems that the government will kill it.
I hope those who are on the backbench actually look at the bill, listen to their constituents and say "based on the merits of the idea, I am going to support it" or "I do not agree with it and here is why" and have a debate about it. Just to get in line and do what they are told is fundamentally undermining their role in Parliament.
That is unfortunate, because most constituents within their ridings want to see transparency. They want to see good ideas put forward. In the case the sunshine bill, it is about Canada's reputation. It is about moving forward, not going backward. We see the government avoiding these ideas.
Do we really want to be seen overseas as laggards on transparency? I think not. Do we want to be seen as fighting even the motivation initiatives of industry? I hope not. That is what people will be doing, in essence, when they say no to this bill.
Finally, I will identify and go through some of the people who are behind this: Transparency International Canada; Probe International; Partnership Africa, which is doing good work on the ground in Africa; Africa Files; and the Corporate Knights. As I said, mining umbrella groups are behind the idea of this as is Publish What You Pay.
Why would anyone be against it? What the parliamentary secretary has pointed out is that somehow we are unable to apply this legislation, which has been adopted in other legislatures and jurisdictions in Canada, because of our Constitution.
We know how legislation is drafted. We know how it has to be in accordance with Canadian law. That is why we have amendments. As they say, that dog will not hunt. If they really do not believe that something can be done, amendments can be made. They cannot reject an idea just based on that.
In summation of why I think this bill is important to adopt, we have to take a look at what is happening in the global economy right now. We have a multi-polar world. We have the BRIC countries, which are major actors in the extractives. We have to get the social license to do business in countries abroad.
If we are not going to get in line with these norms that everyone else is adopting, what does that do to Canada's strategic advantage? If we reject transparency and if we reject the norms that we see others adopting, what does that do?
What it does, interestingly enough, is undermines the very goals that the government claims to be in favour of, which are to expand our investment and trade abroad. If we are seen as laggards on basic transparency, on governance and on the norms that others are following, it is clear what that will do to our reputation, not just as a country, but in terms of investment and how Canadian companies are seen abroad. This is not because of their behaviour, per se, but because of the lack of leadership from the government.
I would encourage all hon. members to take an independent look at this bill, listen to their constituents and ask them what they think of it. What are they here for if not to listen to their constituents, the primary mandate of any member of Parliament? If they hear from the constituents that it is a good idea that should be adopted, then they should break loose, do their jobs, vote independently, seize the day and free themselves from the tyranny of the whip and say "please support transparency".