Mr. Samuel Boulanger (Drummond-Arthabaska):

Has the Minister of Transport

received a request from the city of Drum-mondville for a grant to improve the airport? If so, is the minister in a position to give a favourable answer to this request, which I strongly support and which is anxiously desired by the entire population of Drummond-ville?

Mr. Boulanger:

Mr. Chairman, mindful of what the Minister of Finance (Mr. Fleming) has said I will try to be as brief as possible. However I do wish to offer some remarks on the situation of the textile industry in this country, more particularly in my constituency, which includes the town of Drummond-ville where about 80 per cent of the people depend upon that particular industry for their living.

The government is well aware of the importance of this industry in the nation's economy. According to a report of the Primary Textile Institute 80,000 people are employed in this industry which ranks ahead of the iron and steel industry which employs

29.000 people and the pulp and paper industry which employs 62,000.

Besides the fact that its capital is 84 per cent Canadian, the textile industry also pays the highest wages in this country, averaging $1.20 an hour whereas in 1954, in Great Britain, the average hourly wage was 44 cents, as against 15 cents in Japan and 12 cents in India. The industry is further handicapped by competition resulting from British preferential tariffs.

At the present time, the Canadian textile industry supplies approximately 46 percent of the needs of the domestic market whereas last year the corresponding figure was 56 per cent. This 10 per cent decrease represents work which could have been carried out by our Canadian workers and, consequently, explains the present unemployment.

Comparing the present figures to last year's we find that the textile industry now employs

3.000 fewer people than it did then, which means 3,000 more unemployed. If we look at the situation in the Dominion Textile plant in Drummondville, we find that on November 2, 1957 there were 210 employees less than on November 3, 1956, a figure which must be considered in the light of the fact that that industry employs 1,000 people. There is unemployment therefore in Drummondville, as in every other community with

Interim Supply

a textile industry. That is why I felt that I should call the government's attention, this afternoon, to what, in my estimation, is a rather serious situation.

Two suggestions have been made in this connection by the Canadian association of textile manufacturers. To begin with there should obviously be a change in the definition of the word "dumping" which favours export of American products to Canada below cost price.

The Templon Spinning Mills Company, of Drummondville, sent a letter recently to the Minister of National Revenue (Mr. Nowlan). Here is one paragraph from that letter:

(Text):

We suggest that an investigation of the declared price of American yarns being imported into this country be started. Templon Spinning Mills (Canada) Limited are prepared to provide your department with American orlon prices now in force in the United States, and we are sure that the rest of the Canadian synthetic spinners will be glad to supply similar information from their sources.

(Translation):

This clearly shows that the government must take action to correct the situation. If I felt justified in taking part in the debate this afternoon it is because I feel the matter to be urgent. I would have liked to speak at greater length but I will close now by asking the government to act as soon as possible.

(Text):

Mr. Boulanger:

Notice of motion No. 7 for production of papers was passed on October 25 and I should like to have the report tabled.

Mr. Samuel Boulanger (Drummond-Arlhabaska):

Mr. Speaker, notice of motion No. 7 for production of papers was passed by the house on October 25. I would ask the Secretary of State when I can expect the return to be tabled.

Mr. Samuel Boulanger (Drummond-Ariha-baska):

Mr. Speaker, I was quite gratified to read the motion presented by the hon. member for Joliette-L'Assomption-Montcalm (Mr. Breton), asking for the establishment of a system of simultaneous translation in this house. Though I dissociate myself from any preconceived views with regard to language, which some English-speaking members might attribute to me, I would like to stress how beneficial such a system would be to the proper administration of this country.

There are in this house quite a number of English-speaking members who do not understand French and also some French-speaking members who have a little knowledge of English, but who are unable to express themselves fluently in that language, like myself,

House of Commons

for instance. There is also-because of our rather inefficient, and at times non-existent loudspeaker system-the difficulty of understanding a member from the other end of the house, as was the case just a moment ago when the hon. the Secretary of State (Mrs. Fairclough) was straining her ears to hear what an hon. member had to say. This is also the case for us, who are sitting in this corner of the house; we do not clearly understand those who speak from the other end of the chamber. Such innovation would greatly contribute to a better understanding between the two ethnical groups who form our nation, and would constitute a gesture of approval from the government with regard to the observance of bilingualism.

No wonder French Canadians do not seem interested in the important problems of western Canada, nor the English-speaking westerners in those of the east. I am thinking of the prairie wheat and of our mixed farming in the east.

According to press reports, two organizations have already submitted briefs to the government asking for such a system, i.e. the Cooperative Union of Canada, with Ralph Staples as president, and the Conseil Canadien de la Cooperation, whose president is Mr. Leger, who lives in New Brunswick.

At its last congress in Victoria a no less important organization, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, which has 750 branches across the country, tabled a resolution for the establishment of such a system. In its preambles and resolutions, the chamber of commerce called upon the federal government to establish a simultaneous translation system in the Canadian parliament, for the benefit of members, newspaper correspondents and visitors.

This right was granted to us by the B.N.A. Act which recognized the official use of both French and English, not only in the House of Commons but in all federal government services.

Simultaneous translation of debates both in the house and in the Senate would enable everyone in Canada to get a more realistic and general grasp of all the country's problems, and at the same time would create a genuinely Canadian outlook of unity and understanding.

Professor Marsh Jeanneret, director of publications at the University of Toronto, expressed the view that nobody could call himself 100 per cent Canadian if he were not able to understand both ethnical groups that make up this nation and to be understood by both those elements. We must not be satisfied with being 70 per cent citizens.

House of Commons

The views expressed toy this teacher and by the organizations I have already mentioned prove that bilingualism is a necessity in Canada.

I am not like the hon. member for Vancouver East (Mr. Winch) a professional electrician, and I do not know on what his calculation establishing the cost of this system at $500,000 is based, but all I can say is that, even at this price, it would be beneficial to our country.

(Text):