Mr. Speaker, I agree wholeheartedly with the hon. member for Longueuil. The government's financial bankruptcy-its cumulative debt of more than $500 billion which goes back to the end of the seventies-proves that Canadian federalism does not work.
If you will allow me to use the following metaphor, it is as if Canada were a large multinational corporation with 10 branches in 10 different provinces or countries, and for more than 30 years, there has been constant squabbling between the branches in the provinces and the central government in Ottawa or somewhere else, and they can never agree on how to do things.
In the private sector, to keep the shareholders happy, they would have made the necessary decisions right away and either decentralized or created other independent corporations for these entities. What we are asking as Quebecers is to have an independent entity so that we are politically autonomous, which would not preclude administrative agreements or agreements based on an economic union with the rest of Canada.