Mr. Speaker, last week, the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs received a proposal from the new government of Quebec that improved last July's agreement in principle for maintaining the military college in Saint-Jean.
The minister rejected Quebec's offer of a major financial contribution out of hand, on the pretext that it was provincial interference in federal jurisdiction. The cat is finally out of the bag, since according to the minister, the purpose, as Ottawa now admits, is to demilitarize the college in Saint-Jean.
How can the minister have the nerve to claim that the Quebec government is responsible for closing the military college in Saint-Jean when it was his government, in its first budget, which decided to close it?