Mr. MacNeil: In 1983, when the government of the day converted the National Harbours Board into the Canada Ports Corporation Act, there was provision in that act to create a national police force.

The Port of Vancouver, $65 million a year; the port of Montreal, $55 million a year; the Port of Windsor, somewhere around $1 million a year; yet Bill C-9 would classify us as a nationally important port.

This more than any other piece of legislation deserves that second look because the port of Toronto does not meet any of the three criteria that the law establishes for a national port.

1. The processing of personal data by the competent authorities in the Member States shall be carried out in accordance with national laws, regulations and administrative provisions transposing Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and under the supervision of the supervisory authority of the Member State referred to in Article 28 of that Directive.

The new act will, first, improve the effectiveness of Canada's major ports by creating a national ports system made up of independently managed Canada Port Authorities, called CPAs; second, streamline the regulatory regime for the new CPAs and other ports currently administered by Transport Canada; third, dissolve Canada Ports Corporation, thereby significantly reducing bureaucratic red tape and overhead costs for major ports; fourth, repeal the Public Harbours and Ports Facilities Act; fifth, allow the minister to commercialize the operations of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System by entering into agreements with seaway users ...[+++] or any other group to operate and maintain the seaway; and sixth, finally, to overhaul the marine pilotage system.

It is a very big undertaking, because the bill looks at the way in which Canada's national ports, such as Halifax, Montreal, Quebec City and Sept-Îles, as well as large ports like Trois-Rivières and those on the Saguenay, in addition to all regional ports, will be dealt with in the future.