Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise in the House to speak to this bill for the important reasons I will outline in my speech.
First, let me say that I started in the House 19 years ago next to the curtain and I am right back beside the curtain, starting another journey.
Coming back to the issue, during the period of time that I was the parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, for international human rights, and for international development, one of the reasons that I went around the world was to promote international trade for Canada. The previous Conservative government worked very hard to make free trade one of its priorities, because it recognized that being a country rich in natural resources, as well as innovation, with a small population, free trade agreements with other countries were extremely important for the country to prosper. As such, Conservatives are very proud to have been associated with a government that saw the need for free trade agreements.
My colleague, the former minister of trade, now the member for Abbotsford, signed the treaty at the WTO, which we are now talking about in the House for implementation purposes. This is a technical bill that, again, follows a process in which we need less bureaucracy and more space to carry out international trade.
In today's international world, we see that protectionism is rising. We have seen that south of the border with both candidates talking about protectionism, yet all indications are that NAFTA has been positive for all countries. Even with regard to CETA, today the Minister of International Trade issued a statement in Europe that there are still a lot of areas to cover. There is a lot to cover on the free trade agreement with India. Nevertheless, this is what the government should focus on. It should ensure that our negotiators continue to be aggressive in finding more markets for our products in this country.
As we face the downturn in both the oil and resource industries, but most importantly the oil industry, it has had an impact right across Canada and it is having even more of an impact on my province of Alberta, where there is story after story of people losing their jobs. These days, when I travel through downtown Calgary, it is amazing to see the streets so empty and the business towers becoming empty downtown. This has a serious impact on our country. We need to understand that while we are a very big country with different resources in different parts of the world, each is interdependent on the other. We should not forget that.
We should also remind people like the mayor of Montreal, Denis Coderre, and everyone else, that ultimately the prosperity of Canada is the prosperity of Montreal, as well as Quebec. He does not live in an isolated city. The provinces tend to work together to help each other represent Canada. That is important. We never distinguish what one province or another is doing. Rather, we talk about what Canada as a whole could provide to the world in terms of not only trade but other aspects related to trade, and we have been very successful in doing that.
However, we are now facing a crisis at this time. Pipelines have not been built. Even the NDP government in Alberta, as a matter of fact, is raising the issue of getting our natural resources to tidewater. Yet, very interestingly, the situation is arising where we need to create an environment, which this bill would do, to ensure that Canadian companies have the opportunity to fairly, and I repeat the word “fairly” very strongly, compete around the world.
This is why the issue of supply management comes to mind. We have to be very careful when supply management is involved that we do not sell our country to other foreign countries that are trying break into our market. We must ensure there is a level playing field for our farmers. I am, of course, talking about the supply management that will be part of the free trade agreement that we are signing, the TPP, and everything else. It is critically important that the government, through the implementation of this agreement, get that message.
I am glad the Liberals are implementing this agreement, but I guess they have no choice. However, as I listen to other Liberal MPs, it seems like suddenly they have discovered free trade and that this bill is something on which they had been working. As we know, the current government came into power not even a year ago, and it is now mostly implementing many of the positive aspects that the previous government had done around the world.
It also surprises me that, now, after environmental targets, the Liberals are going to go back to what we had said would be the targets. Therefore, it was amazing when the current government came out and said that Canada was back. Canada was always back.
On this agreement, all due credit goes to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade officials who worked very hard. It was a privilege for me to work with them for the last 10 years. I recognize their expertise and dedication in working toward this objective. This is what they have been doing. Therefore, when the government raises the idea that nothing existed before the Liberals came into power, that is absolutely wrong. My colleagues on the other side need to recognize that we work together as a country. We work together on these issues to ensure we give Canadians what they are looking for, which is clearly very important in this part of the world: jobs and the economy.
The economy comes first, which is why the carbon tax, from my point of view, is a regressive situation. A tax tends to slow the economy down. When we are trying to meet targets, a whole problem arises out of this thing, which is that we cannot create an environment where Canadians cannot work freely, innovate, and carry on what we have been doing for years in our country.
My party is in support of the bill, but the former minister of trade and the previous government should have full credit for working this out there, signing free trade agreements, and working to ensure we have a regime in our country and an environment where our businesses can go out and take the world on, because we are first class in the world.
