That, in the opinion of this House, the government should amend its Direction to the CRTC (Eligible Canadian Corporations) in order to authorize the CRTC to grant Québec-Téléphone a broadcasting license under the Broadcasting Act, so as to permit competition in distributing broadcasting signals in the territory served by Québec-Téléphone.She said: Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise today in this House to debate a motion I tabled with respect to Québec-Téléphone, whose head office is located in the city of Rimouski, regional capital of the Lower St. Lawrence administrative region in Quebec.
Motion M-102 reads as follows:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should amend its Direction to the CRTC (Eligible Canadian Corporations) in order to authorize the CRTC to grant Québec-Téléphone a broadcasting license under the Broadcasting Act, so as to permit competition in distributing broadcasting signals in the territory served by Québec-Téléphone.For the benefit of our listeners, I should explain that the government's direction to the CRTC on eligible Canadian corporations allows the CRTC to set the requirements for recognizing a company as Canadian.
Pursuant to Standing Order 86(3), this motion was formally seconded by four of my colleagues when it was moved at the beginning of this second session: two from the Bloc Quebecois, the hon. member for Portneuf and the one for Charlevoix, the independent member for Beauce, and the NDP member for Burnaby-Kingsway, a riding in British Columbia.
I think it is important to understand what led to the tabling of this motion. First of all, the CRTC and the advisory council on the information highway recommended that the Minister of Canadian Heritage and the Minister of Industry maintain Canadian ownership requirements for broadcasting businesses and that the grandfather protection already enjoyed by Québec-Téléphone under the Telecommunications Act not be granted to it in this sector, thus preventing Québec-Téléphone from entering the world of convergence and competition.
Second, Québec-Téléphone then decided to step in to defend its rights and to do everything it could to survive as a corporation, which led to two concrete actions. It started by lobbying to have its case heard. The company had to define, present and clearly explain its situation so that government officials could seek and find a solution without compromising Canada's cultural sovereignty.
It also had to set up a survival committee composed of managers and unionized employees to promote public awareness of the company's future prospects: either to stagnate and perhaps go into decline or disappear as an autonomous entity, or else to prosper by entering the world of convergence in order to obtain a broadcasting license.
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Third, once these decisions had been made, they then had to be implemented. The committee for the survival of Québec-Téléphone circulated a petition, which was signed by 94,253 people residing on the territory served by Québec-Telephone, a territory stretching from Rimouski to Gaspé, over to the Lower North Shore, from Baie-Comeau to Lourdes-de-Blanc-Sablon, to Montmagny, the Beauce region and finally Donnacona.
This petition, most of which has been tabled in this House, urged the government to grant Québec-Téléphone an extension of the grandfather clause whereby it could be issued a broadcasting licence by the CRTC.
In addition, of course, the senior managers of the company lobbied their member of Parliament and a number of government members, as is normal and necessary, to state their concerns, so that the whole situation would be clear and that an appropriate solution could be devised that would satisfy all those concerned.
It is as part of this effort that I tabled a motion before this House, to make the whole issue transparent. There is a solution that would allow Québec-Telephone to take its place in the field of convergence and to be competitive. But it is a political solution; therefore,
the fact that the matter is raised in political terms should not come as a surprise.
Based to a large extent on a brief submitted by Québec-Téléphone, I would now like to give a brief historical outline of this company, which is part of the everyday lives of many Quebecers and was the largest telecommunications carrier under Quebec jurisdiction until the Supreme Court of Canada decided otherwise in its April 26, 1994 ruling.
The origin of the Québec-Téléphone company we know today dates back to 1898. This was the year when Dr. Ferdinand Demers founded the Métis telephone company. But it was not until July 7, 1927 that the company was officially incorporated, under the name of Corporation de téléphone de valeurs d'utilités publiques de Québec. A vigorous company from the beginning, it eventually integrated most of the province's telephone networks.
Québec-Téléphone's true founder was the Hon. Jules A. Brillant, who bought the Compagnie de téléphone nationale in 1927. Twenty years later, the company received supplementary letters patent and became known as the Corporation de téléphone de Québec. On February 10, 1955, through a special act, Quebec's Parliament gave the company the power to expropriate, along with the name Québec-Téléphone.
The company then had to modernize its operations and look for considerable capital input, which was indispensable if it was to develop its communications infrastructure. In 1966, the Brillant family sold its Québec-Téléphone shares and, on July 21, the Anglo-Canadian Telephone Company, a subsidy of GTE Corporation-General Telephone and Electronics-, whose head office is located in Connecticut, became controlling shareholder of Québec-Téléphone with 50.4 per cent of the shares.
It is interesting to note that, in spite of this association with an American multinational, the company presidents, namely Messrs. Bénéteau, Sirois and Laroche, have always been from the region and have worked their way up within the company.
Mr. Bénéteau was president from 1967 to 1974. During that period, the company's growth was characterized by technological excellence and emphasis on network automation, while also giving priority to the development of telephone services in the middle and lower North Shore regions. The construction program to provide the north shore of the St. Lawrence with communications infrastructures was very ambitious, but the company was convinced that it would prove a powerful development tool for these regions, which were not industrialized, as yet.
By the end of 1968, the 2,085 miles of Québec-Téléphone's microwave network made it the largest one in Quebec while also ensuring communications with western Labrador and the island of Newfoundland.
On September 1, 1974, Raymond Sirois took over from Mr. Bénéteau and a true era of change started for Québec-Téléphone.
The company was always at the forefront of change. On October 14, 1975, it started a convergence experiment, bought the infrastructure of Cablovision Bas-Saint-Laurent Ltée, and pledged to serve subscribers from Matane and the Matapedia Valley. In Rimouski, its suburbs, and Mont-Joli, Québec-Téléphone worked with Câblodistribution de l'Est. To comply with a Supreme Court ruling, it was forced to stop its involvement with cable television infrastructures.
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Rapid changes in telecommunications did not prevent the company from quickly adapting to an increasingly competitive environment. As early as 1981, the company started digitizing its telephone system by using fibre optics in the long distance system.
Québec-Téléphone was the first company in Canada to offer all its clients private lines in 1991, and touch tone lines in 1993. In that year, the company also finished converting its switching and long distance transmission facilities to fibre optics, thus taking the lead in electronic highway development.
On February 1, 1992, Gilles Laroche became president of the company, and his arrival signalled the beginning of the age of partnerships. The company joined the Stentor network, thus becoming a Telesat shareholder. By adding a satellite component to its services, Québec-Téléphone could contemplate efficient and economical solutions to serving remote and not very accessible areas in its wide territory.
Québec-Téléphone must continue to work to ensure its clients have equal access to services at a reasonable cost. Thus, in September 1995, through a subsidiary, the company introduced the Internet under its GLOBE TROTTER trademark.
In summary, to conclude this historical overview, I would like to quote at length from the brief prepared by Québec-Téléphone: ``The history of Québec-Téléphone is simply and above all the history of the builders and developers of a region which is arid in appearance but rich in a commitment and a will to succeed collectively in being and remaining a company whose heart beats to the rhythm of the life of the people representing it and pushing it to achieve excellency''.
Let us now briefly turn to the operating environment of Québec-Téléphone. This company serves a 272,000 square kilometre territory, which forms 40 per cent of Quebec's populated area. This territory is spread over three distinct administrative regions: Quebec, the Lower St. Lawrence and the North Shore. Within the territor assigned to Québec-Téléphone, the company serves a
total of 309 municipalities; 300 of them have a population of less than 10,000, and 168 one of less than 1,000. Only one, Rimouski, has a population of more than 35,000. On the whole, 54 per cent of the population served by Québec-Téléphone can be considered rural.
According to the 1991 census, Québec-Téléphone provides its telecommunications services to 550,400 people. Expressed as a number of inhabitants per square kilometre, this translates as a population density of 2.2 people per square kilometre. This population, living in a vast but sparsely populated area, is characterized, in demographic terms, by evolution, aging and particular needs.
Indeed, between 1981 and 1991, the number of households increases as much in the territory served by Québec-Téléphone as in Quebec and Canada, the increase being 1.8 per cent compared to 2.2 per cent for Quebec and Canada resppectively. The population served by Québec-Téléphone is aging more rapidly, because the young are drained toward big cities outside the territory served by this company. Finally, it is impossible to ignore certain general needs of this population, such as maintaining its living standard, improving the quality and efficiency of public services, maintaining vital relations with big cities, and improving the transportation system to guarantee a better access. In short, this population wants to break free from the isolation that comes with living in remote areas.
Despite the context it has to cope with, Québec-Téléphone has, through its presence and involvement in the regions, a great regional economic impact. First of all, it is the most important private sector employer in Rimouski, and over half its 1,700 employees live there. The total payroll of Québec-Téléphone employees living in Rimouski was over $48 million, and that of all employees of that company was almost $75 million, in 1995.
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Figures for 1993 show that Québec-Téléphone bought $21,294,565 in goods in the territory its serves, and $64,780,435 in Canada. The company purchased 92 per cent of all the goods it bought in Canada.
Québec-Téléphone is well established, and it contributes to the social and cultural development in its region. It also contributes to the quality of life by supporting many community services. Its involvement and sponsoring activities are mainly in health, education, arts, culture, and outdoor recreation. I could not possibly give the complete list of activities Québec-Téléphone is involved in, but here are a few examples.
In the area of health, it contributed $350,000 to the Association du cancer de l'est du Québec towards an experiment with a chip card to allow consultations and updating of medical records.
In the area of education, it has sponsored for five years the chair of optical telecommunications at Laval University. A first agreement for $600,000 was signed in 1988, and then renewed and increased to $1 million in 1993.
In the arts and culture area, financing of an international organ and harpsichord international workshop; financing of the publication of books on the history of the Lower St. Lawrence and the South Shore; for the last 26 years, publication on the front cover of the phone directory of a work of art by a Quebec painter.
Québec-Téléphone is also getting involved in the multimedia sector, with distance learning, distance diagnosis, distance justice, the Internet, and broad band frequency communications services.
At this point in my speech, I would like to quote again from the brief submitted by Québec-Téléphone: ``These latter services demonstrate the capacity of our company to provide, at the same time as other companies, if not before, advanced services to meet the real concerns and needs of the people and the businesses we serve. Québec-Téléphone expects a very bright future if it is given the opportunity to acquire a broadcasting license. As the company has done in other areas, it will take this new responsibility seriously. It will strive to set up a multipurpose network for all of its customers. It will remain attuned to the daily and more general needs of the people in order to provide them with a standard of living comparable to the technological development of the larger urban areas''.
The brief continues: ``Should Québec-Téléphone's request for a broadcasting license be turned down, it will mean that these advanced services will not be available over a good part of the territory it serves-Québec-Téléphone has a good knowledge of the people and the companies it serves, especially of their needs. Throughout its corporate history, it has shared many co-operative projects and experiences with its customers-and has proven its sense of responsibility, its entrepreneurship and its progressive vision as a Canadian company. If Québec-Téléphone is prevented from getting a broadcasting license, not only will the company be denied a privilege that could have granted by the lawmakers, but a majority of the people living on the territory it serves will have to do without the advanced services the company could have provided and the residents of the larger urban areas already enjoy''.
Québec-Téléphone's brief goes on to say: ``The 1987 policy statement and the 1993 act led us to believe that nothing would stop Québec-Téléphone from offering a comprehensive package of communication services on its territory, as all other telephone companies will be able to do, wherever they may be located in Canada. Québec-Téléphone believes this demand is natural and that it constitutes a logical extension of vested rights recognized by the 1987 policy statement and in the communication act. Québec-Téléphone is convinced that the government will recognize its efforts and its determination in all fields which have marked its
long experience and that the government will simply allow it to go on doing what it has already started out to do''.
Last year, the government adopted orders in council which were a lot more threatening for Canadian culture than what we are proposing today. Allowing satellite broadcasting where 75 per cent of programs originate in the United States represents a much bigger risk.
A broadcasting licence is important for Québec-Téléphone because it will allow it to develop the regions affected by the creation of quality jobs, to make new services accessible at a reasonable cost, to ensure competition over the territory served by the company, to promote culture in French and to guarantee the development of Québec-Téléphone.
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A licence is desirable for Québec-Téléphone, its customers, the people it serves, its employees and its shareholders.
I am convinced the government will do everything in its power to consider this motion favourably and to find a solution which will be acceptable for all stakeholders, without compromising the cultural sovereignty of Canada and Quebec alike, and as soon as possible.
Mr. Guy H. Arseneault (Parliamentary Secretary to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Canadian Heritage, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, Québec-Téléphone's rights to hold a licence to provide broadcasting services on the information highway is a crucial issue for the people of eastern Quebec. These people should have access to the same kind of broadcasting, telecommunication and new communication services as the rest of the Canadian population.
The information highway offers hope for the economy of the future. I think that is not unrealistic. Right now, the economic, social and cultural sectors are going through a period of rapid transition brought about by the power of the information, to name but one factor.
It is true that electrical connections and wires by themselves will not create that economic growth. But it is there new information content and applications essential to every information based society will be developed.
The federal government showed the way by dealing with issues related to the creation of the information highway in Canada. That information highway will answer the needs of the Canadian population and allow us to remain competitive on the global communication market.
The government identified three study objects for the public consultation process leading to the implementation of policies in that area, namely facilities, content and competition.
With regards to the competition policy, many supported the guiding principle according to which a fair and sustainable competition is good for consumers. Canadian consumers have clearly indicated they want more competitive distribution choices.
Our government's policies have already helped to determine how competition will be introduced into direct to home satellite services. Among other things, the government has launched a process that will make it possible to ensure healthy competition in the delivery of direct to home broadcasting and telecommunication services.
Despite the strong competition that will result from these new types of systems for delivering services, the development of our cable television and telephone networks in Canada will continue to be one of our greatest assets in meeting the challenges of the future in the communications field.
Clear guidelines resulting from the government's policy will reassure the industries in question and encourage them to invest in the technologies that will benefit Canadian consumers.
The freedom of consumers to use the services they feel are the best and to select whichever network or networks they wish can be respected only if competition between the various stakeholders is fair and defensible.
In this regard, we have pointed out to the government that it would be preferable not to give an initial advantage to the cable television and telephone companies in the provision of services traditionally offered by one or the other. These conditions apply not just to the regions served by Québec-Téléphone and BC Tel, but to the entire country.
It is the CRTC that studies regulatory questions such as the conditions of interconnectivity and interoperability, in order to ensure competition in the local telephone services sector. For its part, the government will determine the evolution of competition between these networks.
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The Deputy Prime Minister and heritage minister has indicated her readiness to find solutions that will guarantee residents of eastern Quebec and British Columbia the same kind of services enjoyed in the rest of Canada.
Numerous meetings have already been held between the directors of Québec-Téléphone and BC Tel and the minister or her representatives. The talks are continuing, with a view to finding solutions that will maintain the integrity of the Canadian broadcasting system, while offering Québec-Téléphone and BC Tel the latitude necessary to ensure that their networks can be used effectively and that they complement communications services in the regions inhabited by their clientele.
The government will shortly be announcing the implementation of its policy with respect to merging telecommunications and broadcasting. I am sure that this policy will include the inhabitants of the Gaspé, the Lower St. Lawrence, the North Shore and any other region served by Québec-Téléphone or BC Tel.
[English]
Mr. Werner Schmidt (Okanagan Centre, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleague from Quebec for Motion No. 102 which is currently before the House. It is an excellent motion and one which we could support 100 per cent if it were expanded to include B.C. Tel in every reference that was made to Quebec Tel. It seems to me that the problems with Quebec Tel with regard to the CRTC regulations and other legislation in Canada apply equally to the B.C. Tel organization.
I commend the concise way in which the arguments were presented. The examples given were excellent and they continue to also prevail in the province of British Columbia particularly with reference to B.C. Tel. The difference between B.C. Tel and Quebec Tel is that B.C. Tel is much more pervasive in that it covers the whole province. I commend my colleague for her willingness to bring forward this issue.
Rather than rehearse all of the good things that B.C. Tel has done and is doing and all the good things that Quebec Tel has done and is doing, I would like to draw brief attention to what brought about the need for a motion of this type to be introduced in the House. The primary reason this kind of motion must be presented to the House is that the legislation governing these foreign ownership of telephone companies and things of this sort is obsolete. Let me give a couple of examples of why I think this is the case.
A tiny little company is being developed in southern Ontario called The Linc which is going to try to combine the provisions of Internet with long distance telephones. We know that the communication signals are rapidly going into digital form and not too long in the future all of them will be digitized which creates some very interesting points. This makes it possible for signals to be compressed so that they take up very little space on the highway. They can then be decompressed at the receiving end to be interpreted as to what the message really was.
The minister's Information Highway Advisory Council was made up of all kinds of people. They were not political but were people who understood the business, particularly the technology pertaining to communications.
Members of the council said the following about foreign ownership limits: ``As a means of reinforcing Canadian sovereignty, the Telecommunications Act, the Broadcasting Act and Teleglobe Act include provisions respecting Canadian ownership and control. In broadcasting and telecommunications, current regulations limit foreign ownership to 20 per cent''. Apparently as of last week that was changed to 33-1/3 per cent. ``As part of foreign ownership provisions and the Canadian ownership requirements in the Telecommunications Act 1993, Parliament introduced grandparenting provisions for two telephone companies: B.C. Tel and Quebec Tel. The council considered whether the grandparented status of these companies should be extended to cover licences to operate broadcasting undertakings. I submit they should.
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Foreign ownership limits are meant to promote Canadian control. They may, however, deny Canada access to the investment necessary to develop the Canadian information highway. My hon. colleague across the way recognized how important the information highway is to Canada's economic, social and cultural development.
The very restriction being proposed, that is currently in vogue, and the one that is being proposed that it be lifted would encourage the development of the information highway, not discourage it. If we continue to insist on obsolete legislation, we will discourage the very thing the Minister of Industry is so strongly supporting and developing.
The council believes that with respect to investment the behaviour of capital is more critical as a policy issue than its source. It raises the very interesting question of how one determines the nationality of capital in the first place. It is important to recognize that capital in itself has no conscience. Capital does a variety of things. It seems the issue is not where that capital comes from but rather what that capital does.
We have Canadian capital engaged in all kinds of activities, some of which are smuggling and dealing in contraband activities. It is not that the capital did not originate in Canada; it is capital that is doing the wrong thing. If we really want to control capital we should be controlling what capital does so it can meet the objectives of our social, economic and cultural goals.
We need to have legislation that governs capital so it can operate in manner consistent with Canada's economic, social and cultural objectives. To that end, the advisory council went on to say that the liberalization of the telecommunications environment may be the most important step to realizing the economy-wide benefits of information highway use and development following a transitional period toward market based pricing, a framework of open and sustainable competition. That is at the heart of this issue.
It is all very well to speak about competition, and then have legislation which defies the implementation of that competition. It is important to recognize something which happened last week. The director of the CRTC, Keith Spicer, proposed that long distance charges be deregulated. In other words, the CRTC should not have regulatory power over the setting of those rates. That is
the first admission that it cannot control those rates. The competition is such that it is always behind the eight ball in those areas.
Last week the U.S. deregulated local telephone charges, which raises an interesting question for the ministers involved. What are the priorities? If Canadians were given a choice between giving the Canadian telecommunications industry the advantage it needs to be a strong contender and a leader in the global communications market, or preventing the Canadian industry from having a fair chance to compete by condemning our industries to third class, unable to compete, unable to produce jobs and growth, which do our ministers think Canadians would choose?
We want jobs. There is no doubt that if we are to have jobs we need to have competition especially in the electronics industry. If one talks to the people in the industry it becomes clear very quickly that if they were limited to competition in the Canadian environment only, they would not be able to generate the kinds of profits they would need to expand.
It is highly necessary for the government to realize within its own ranks, within its own cabinet there is a split over the issue of foreign ownership of phone and cable firms. There is a convergence developing in Canada today between telephone companies and cable companies. They can do exactly the same thing, provide telephone service and provide cable service.
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I ask the government to examine the efficiency of the CRTC on the one hand dealing with telecommunications and broadcasting, and the Department of Industry dealing with spectrum management.
We have three different kinds of operations now. We have telecommunications and cable on this side. With industry, we have local multiple communications systems and the personal communication system.
The last two deal with licensing of certain spectra so that the industries or the companies involved will manage and communicate on those spectra. These licences have been granted by the minister of education to some companies. I have a lot of questions about exactly how the process was implemented to show fairness and equity for all those applying.
On the other hand, I want to compare what that process was with what the CRTC is doing. The CRTC is holding back technological development. It is making it very difficult for the companies to advance technologically.
On the other hand, the LMCSs and the PCSs and the way the licences were granted provided increased competition. While one of the processes is efficient, the other is not. Both have some problems with them. The time has come to examine how we will control what capital does in Canada. That becomes the issue, not where capital comes from.
I encourage the hon. member from Quebec to expand her motion to include B.C. Tel so that we could support it 100 per cent.
[Translation]
Mr. Bernard St-Laurent (Manicouagan, BQ): Mr. Speaker, I would like to make a few brief remarks to give the House an idea of what is going on in the regions with regard to important issues such as the one raised by my colleague from Rimouski-Témiscouata, namely the granting of a broadcasting licence to Québec-Téléphone.
Such a licence would put regions such as the North Shore more or less on an equal footing with the large cities as far as communications are concerned. I will start by giving a quick overview since my colleague covered the subject in more detail.
Québec-Téléphone was founded in 1927 by Jules A. Brillant. It is important to note that in 1966, in order to have access to the capital he needed to modernize and develop his network, Mr. Brillant gave up his interest in the company. GTE Corporation became majority shareholder, which allowed to keep the head office in Rimouski. That was done to protect the regional character of the company.
To better understand the difficulties Québec-Téléphone faces, it is important to know the context in which it operates. The territory it serves extends over 72,000 square kilometres, which is 40 per cent of Quebec's total area. Québec-Téléphone is independent in its decision-making and in the choice of its suppliers. One important detail I want to mention is that French is the company's only working language.
During my speech, I will talk a lot about the regions because Québec-Téléphone is essentially an image of the regions and of the kind of service that can be offered and obtained in the regions. It must be noted also that the company is technologically advanced, offering affordable digital service to all its clients in the regions.
Of course, the company is proud of offering equal access to advanced services such as teleforum, videoforum, cellular telephony, 911, Internet, which is very popular right now, and I would add that the information highway is the key to the future.
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I was just reading a document describing the information highway as a way of putting all regions at the heart of economic activity. It said it gave access to ``cybervillages'', a typical term in this field.
What is Québec-Téléphone's contribution from the economic point of view? There is mention of close to $75 million in salaries in 1995, paid to nearly 1,700 employees spread out more or less
across the area. Despite difficulties in covering the territory, there are 1,700 workers, 600 of which are also share-holders. This is a figure worth noting.
There is also more than $800 million worth of property throughout the area, as well as modern tools for communicating with customers.
Québec-Téléphone contributes to social and cultural development through such means as promoting culture, particularly via its directory, which always features the work of local artists.
Financial support to the arts is a very important aspect, and one not shared by other regional businesses: close to $100,000 in funding to museums, theatre and music in 1995, for example.
One of the key problems encountered, and one for which no one can be blamed, it is just a regional reality: some, if not most, of regional businesses merely siphon off local funds, perhaps even taking away raw materials. Not all of them do so, and not all of them do so to an indecent extent but, if we look at businesses in the regions and compare the value of what is taken out of the region with the sums ploughed back into the region, investment in culture and young business entrepreneurs, for example, true implication is a fair exchange. Québec-Téléphone has earned good marks in this regard, for it has no other investments to protect and to build up elsewhere. Think Québec-Téléphone and you think North Shore, the Gaspé, all those areas my colleague for Rimouski-Témiscouata has just mentioned.
Québec-Téléphone is therefore in the vanguard as far as efforts invested in cultural and social development are concerned.
There is also mention of a $350 000 donation in 1995 to the east Quebec cancer society, over 7 years.
Furthermore, its employees are involved in education, health care, culture, socio-community activities, sports, economics and politics, areas in which they put some 26,000 hours back into the region in 1995. This is a huge amount of time. I know from experience that the corporation vigorously encourages its employees to get involved in the arts. I know that many are involved, not only politically but socially and in the community, pretty much everywhere. The company often provides flexibility in terms of working hours in order to offer organizations in these areas some help.
Québec-Téléphone contributes more than $1 million a year to research and development. It has an endowed chair in optical telecommunications at Laval University, a French language research centre on organization automation, and so on.
As time is moving along, I will shorten my next point, which concerns the high rate of unemployment and the exodus of young people in fringe areas. Therefore it has to be shown that the company wants to continue to increase regional development.
With the famous information highway connecting our regions, it helps outlying regions like eastern Quebec, which encompasses a considerable area. Things are made so much easier that, through these technologies, progress is being made at essentially the same rate. Regions are not necessarily at an advantage, because that would mean they have more, but they are more or less on the same footing.
The problem for everyone in the regions is the transmission of information, getting up to date more quickly. With the new capabilities Québec-Téléphone is asking for, this problem would be resolved with a totally regional flavour, something that would not be guaranteed with outside firms. Québec-Téléphone has proven itself in this area and, I am sure, will continue to do so.
I will conclude by saying that the firm has demonstrated its ability in this regard. I think all Bloc members would endorse what would be, in my view, a justified swing of the pendulum in its favour while ensuring the region served by the company is well represented in its future development.
Mrs. Suzanne Tremblay (Rimouski-Témiscouata, BQ): Mr. Speaker, I am very glad to have introduced this motion. I was often asked about the origin of the grandfather clause. As many will know, its comes from the 15th amendment to the American Constitution giving blacks the right to vote. But when they came to vote they were told: ``You can neither read nor write but if your grandfather voted in the past, this gives you the right to vote''. This is why we use, by analogy with this 1869 amendment to the American Constitution, the term ``grandfathering'' when referring to vested rights.
I readily accept the request of the hon. member of the Reform Party who asked that the motion I introduced be extended to B.C. Tel. Besides, B.C. Tel is already participating, as a partner, to all discussions between Québec-Téléphone and the government and, as my hon. colleague from the government said, the solution that will be found for Québec-Téléphone will apply to B.C. Tel as well.
The minister has recently amended the direction on eligible Canadian corporations, but it is still not enough to meet the needs of Québec-Téléphone since it is still not 50.4 per cent of shares that can be owned by a foreign company. The important aspect of this whole issue, as I believe I have said at the start of my speech, as the heritage minister herself said and as everyone will understand, is to find a solution allowing Québec-Téléphone and B.C. Tel to continue to provide legally and openly multimedia services to the public, but in a way that would protect the cultures of both Canada and Quebec.
Is it the pleasure of the House to suspend the sitting for a few minutes?
Some hon. members: Agreed.
(The sitting of the House was suspended at 11.49 a.m.)