Mr. Speaker, I apologize. Unless I am mistaken, the budget makes no mention of this compensation which, by rights, should be paid to the region. Does the government intend to make good on the request made by the Coalition des associations économiques de l'Outaouais? We are still waiting for an answer, and from what I can gather, we will not get one today either. Obviously, these massive public service staffing cuts are underhanded and pernicious, because they were made unilaterally in an autoritarian way.
In the months leading up to the budget, the government obstinately refused to reach an agreement with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents 70 per cent of federal public servants. This union, however, was ready to negotiate and to hammer out what could have been a mutual and fair agreement with the government. No matter, the government rejected the union's proposal out of hand, not even bothering to negotiate.
The people are justifiably concerned about the quality of the services they are entitled to, which will now be provided by a heavily mortgaged public service. Would it not have been better for the government, instead of slashing its own public service as it did, to put in place mechanisms allowing it to stop wasting Quebec and Canadian taxpayers' money?
What does the government do to avoid wasting public funds, duplication and overlap? Of course, the government did not take any action to achieve this goal. That is why I strongly believe that, had it been otherwise, the cuts in the federal public service could have been less severe.
To get back to the glaring contradictions and questionable priorities in the federal budget, I note that the Liberal government has announced a $532 million cut in the international aid budget. This decision is quite surprising, since he himself pointed out very recently in his foreign policy statement that international aid was crucial to meeting three objectives: prosperity, employment and international security.
Having cut the international aid budget by over 25 per cent, how can the government claim it is adhering to the principle of moral responsibility toward international aid for developing countries, in order to reduce poverty? The fact is, it cannot, Mr. Speaker.
Furthermore, how can they favour international trade development, when Canadian businesses are subsidized so that they are kept artificially dependent on the government? In fact, these subsidies hurt their competitiveness at the international level. This leads me to believe that because he did not have the courage to go further in reducing business subsidies, the minister will help keep these businesses in an unhealthy state of dependence that will hurt their development and hinder access to international markets.
In closing, I would like to say a few words about the budget measures with respect to agriculture. Clearly, the federal budget does not affect all farmers across Canada the same way. The federal government announced the abolition of the $560 million Crow rate subsidy that helps finance Western grain transport.
However, this measure comes with a financial compensation package in the order of $1.6 billion for losses in land values, as well as $1 billion in credit guarantees for grain purchases. In addition, Western farmers affected by the cancellation of the Crow rate subsidy will receive $300 million over five years to facilitate the transition. On the other hand, Canadian milk producers, almost 50 per cent of whom are in Quebec, will see their federal subsidies cut by 30 per cent over the next two years.
I find it hard to understand the logical basis for compensating Western farmers for the loss of the Crow rate subsidy, while industrial milk producers, most of whom live in Quebec, will not be entitled to any compensation from the federal government. Is this a case of double standard? I am afraid so.
After crying wolf for several months to prepare the population for draconian budget measures, the Liberal government finally gave birth to a budget that is neither flesh, fish, nor fowl, that defers until later many of the real solutions, and that insidiously ignores many of its potentially perverse and negative effects.