Mr. Speaker, first I want to congratulate my colleague on his initial address in the House. I have just a few brief questions. They are very serious ones on which I would like his reaction.
The suggestion was made that the Bloc Quebecois wanted to further its own personal agenda which is in a sense the separation, not in the real sense of separation, of Quebec from Canada through constitutional wrangling and that may be one option it is pursuing. One never knows. Obviously the kind of dedication Bloc members show toward that objective is sometimes rather obsessive.
Is there not another possibility that it was their intent to attempt to embarrass the government by suggesting it is not being done and there is no mechanism for doing it? I would like my hon. colleague to consider that possibility and give me his reaction to it.
Does my colleague and his party make a distinction between the concepts of overlap and duplication? I do. To me overlap is simply some overlapping of something similar, but duplication is completely the same.
Finally, I have not heard anyone talk about the possible overlap and duplication among the different levels of governments, federal, provincial and municipal. In Manitoba we have a real problem in the social assistance field within the levels of government. Within the federal government I am told there may be as many as a dozen or more departments involved in education and related things.