Madam Speaker, it is with great pleasure and pride that I rise today to speak on the motion presented by my colleague for Laurier-Sainte-Marie: That this House enjoin the government to recognize the legitimacy of the democratic process initiated by the Government of Quebec in order to allow Quebecers to chart their own political and constitutional future.
On September 12, 1994, in Quebec we finally did elect a separatist government which clearly puts its option on the table and asks all Quebecers to take part in a huge democratic operation. This is totally new! It is a clear, simple and open process where nothing is hidden. Liberals from the provincial and the federal levels have claimed that they will not take part in this process, which they consider illegitimate.
The Prime Minister and his friends protest and try to minimize this process initiated by the Quebec government and its impact. Federalists try to ridicule and trivialize the process. This is too bad, since they thus demonstrate a lack of respect for the duly elected Quebec government.
Their reaction appears normal to us and was rather predictable. For once, they are not the ones to set the agenda and the final result of this vast democratic operation will not be a new kind of federalism but rather sovereignty for Quebec, the creation of a new country.
I really wonder what federalists expected of a sovereignist government. Did they think that the Parti Quebecois would ask Quebecers if they would like to have renewed federalism or, as the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs recently put it, flexible federalism? Come on! Be serious and show some respect for the Quebec government! I am sure that once you will be over the shock, you will want to sit down with us and express your point
of view. Mr. Parizeau has extended an invitation to you and it would be in your interest to accept it. Besides, I see today that, thanks to our motion, you have already entered the debate and this is a good sign.
I would like now to touch on a sector that Quebec's sovereignty will help simplify and make more efficient and effective, that is, job training. For years there has been a consensus in Quebec that job training has to be under exclusive provincial jurisdiction. Employers, unions, workers as well as social and economic groups all agree: Quebec must have all powers for manpower training. Everybody agrees that federal programs and budgets must be repatriated in order to develop a consistent and intelligent manpower training policy.
For years the federal government has turned a deaf ear to Quebec's request in this respect. It systematically refuses to give Quebec what it is asking for. It hides behind national objectives and its responsibility for unemployment insurance to intervene in an area under provincial jurisdiction.
This intrusion by the federal government has created two manpower networks in Quebec. A vast number of federal programs overlap and duplicate provincial programs. According to André Bourbeau, a former Quebec minister, this situation wastes some $275 million a year of taxpayers' money in Quebec alone.
In 1991, in a policy statement on manpower development, this former Quebec Minister of Manpower, a Liberal and a federalist, said: "For many years Quebec has claimed control over policy instruments that influence the job market. This means that the Government of Quebec and its economic partners are demanding that laws, budgets, institutions, programs and services related to manpower and to the job market be under one authority. Quebecers with an interest in the job market recognize almost unanimously that manpower policies must be developed by those who are closest to the various areas of the job market." What has the federal government done to respond to these rational demands from Quebec? Nothing! It has rejected them out of hand.
Meanwhile, Quebec's workers and employers are suffering as a result of this situation. Indeed, the double system is cumbersome, slow and complex. Workers and employers do not need that. They need the exact opposite. They need training that is effective, fast and convenient.
An employer or a new company looking for workers cannot afford to wait around for years until these people are trained. As soon as companies announce their requirements, the training system must be able to provide a quick response. This kind of efficient and quick response is particularly important, considering the new technologies being used. And the same applies to workers. They must be given the means to acquire training without being penalized.
Recently, I was given an example of this lack of flexibility in the training system by one of my constituents. This person wanted to take an 18-month course in office automation. The Canada Employment Centre told her she could not do that because the federal government had only approved 12-month courses. Many workers who want to get off unemployment or welfare are faced with this kind of situation which makes no sense at all.
In Quebec, we want to make the system more flexible, and we want to make it smarter. Today, we cannot do that. The federal presence prevents us from making these crucial improvements in the system. Today, the federal presence is paralysing the entire system. In 1993, Canada ranked twenty-second and last, and I repeat, twenty-second and last among developed countries because of its very poor level of in-house training. This figure is not often mentioned by these people across the way. It is a little embarrassing, I suppose.
Let us consider briefly why people no longer know where to turn. The federal government is interfering in this area with 27 programs in addition to Quebec's 25. The federal government interferes by maintaining 100 Canada Employment Centres, although Quebec has put in place la Société québécoise de développement de la main-d'oeuvre. The mandate of the SQDM was originally to establish genuine one-stop counters in all regions in Quebec.
I am referring to genuine one-stop counters for Quebec, not a façade like we saw in the Canada-Saskatchewan agreement which, in fact, subordinates the province's jurisdiction to the federal authority. In other words, the kind of one-stop counter that even Daniel Johnson, Quebec's Liberal leader, criticized and rejected.
Today, the SQDM acts more like a manager of federal funding, without any real say over how it is spent. The lack of co-ordination between the two networks means that the unemployed are not getting the kind of service they need. In an internal memo, the federal government revealed that, in the spring of 1993, close to 25,000 unemployed workers, although they had been referred to a training program, could not be accommodated.
Quebec sovereignty will make it possible to clean up the sorry mess the federal government put us in. The federal lack of willingness to give Quebec what we have been demanding for years in this respect, worse yet, its increasing encroachment on
our turf is the last straw which will make people vote yes, very soon.
Then, we will be able to put in place the system we have been yearning for for so long, an intelligent system which will efficiently meet the needs of the labour market. Bye bye, dirty old federal machine which has not had an oil change in years.
To conclude, I invite all the people in Laurentides, in my area, my riding, to participate in the regional committees which will hold hearings in February. For the first time, Quebecers will have the chance to say clearly and freely what kind of society they want and whether or not they want a sovereign Quebec. Individuals and groups of all allegiance, join us to have a democratic look at the sovereignist option. Express your point of view, voice your fears, suggest improvements; the committees which will crisscross Quebec will welcome you and want to hear from you.
At the end of the day, Quebecers will decide if they want their own country, a country which will reflect their aspirations, a country in which they will be fulfilled.
The process the Government of Quebec is offering us is unique. It is democratic, it will make it possible for each and everyone to be heard.
I will never stop fighting to establish the country of Quebec. I will do so with strength and vigour, because my most fervent wish is to hand down to my children a country called Quebec.