I will conclude my remarks here.
Some people might argue that we have fewer members and that this is how it has always worked. Fewer members does not necessarily mean fewer votes, however, as was mentioned earlier. It was pointed out that, although the current government did not garner 70% or even 60% of the vote, it has a much stronger place in Parliament than the percentage of the vote it earned.
In the 2011 election, we won 23% of the vote in Quebec, yet we won just 4 of the 75 seats in the province. The number of members did not at all reflect the number of votes we received. When the number of members a party has does not at all reflect the number of votes earned, the budget allocated to that party in Parliament is not fair to the people who voted for that party either. That should be considered. The number of members elected should not be the only criterion; the number of votes must also be considered. In the last election, more than 800,000 people out of 8 million people in Quebec voted for the Bloc Québécois. That is a significant number that should not be overlooked.
Forty percent of Quebecers are separatists and the Bloc Québécois is the only separatist party in Ottawa. Forty percent of Quebecers want to hear our point of view and are interested in it. We must therefore have the necessary resources to make our point of view heard.
I am not arguing for my own interests alone. Some people will say that the Bloc Québécois has 10 members and that we had four before. Let us not forget that the NDP once had nine members and the Conservative Party had only two. All parties can end up with fewer members. It is normal for budgets and speaking time to be reduced when a party has fewer members. The problem is that it is not proportional. It has to be proportional. Unfortunately, that is not the way it works at all right now and that is extremely unfair to all those voters and people who support us.
Mr. Chair, those are the points I wanted to raise to the whole committee. I hope they will be considered and that we will be invited to speak more often, because we have a lot to say to you.