Madam Speaker, this is a Bloc Quebecois amendment and I want to comment on it. It would amend Bill C-17 which proposes to freeze the federal contribution to the Canada Assistance Plan.
You know that the Canada Assistance Plan is financed by the federal and provincial governments.
According to Bill C-17, the federal contribution to CAP would be capped after March 1995.
CAP is a plan that was developed in the 1950s and 1960s for the sake of social justice for classes of people who, for some reason, cannot support themselves.
So, it is a plan that really addresses the basic needs of some of our fellow citizens. The government's proposal would impose a unilateral freeze on the federal contribution to CAP.
My party denounces this way of proceeding. This change would have major consequences that we parliamentarians can hardly assess at the present time but we in the opposition know that some parts of the population would be severely affected.
With this in mind, my party proposed an amendment calling for a standing committee to study the whole question so that the members of this House could know the real impact of the Liberal government's proposal on the most needy in our society. As parliamentarians, we must in all honesty seriously consider the consequences of our decisions.
I think it is not improper to really want to take into account the serious impact that could result from legislation we pass here. It is therefore important that people, through their representatives, be made aware of the situations that could result from a proposal such as the one the Liberal government is making.
I also want to denounce the practice followed at various levels of government, that is using a seemingly harmless measure to freeze transfer payments to other levels of government. That is what is called passing the buck, shifting one's problems, one's responsibilities onto someone else.
That is exactly what the federal government is doing now. And what will happen? Provincial governments will get less contributions. To maintain their present level of services, provincial governments will have to spend more and perhaps go deeper into debt or they will have to bear the responsibility of cuts in programs affecting the most disadvantaged members of our society.
But then the federal government will wash its hands of the matter, saying that it simply made cuts in transfer payments whereas provincial governments decided not to make supplementary expenditures in order to offset the cuts.
I think this is dishonest and hypocritical, because the government proposing this bill knows perfectly well what will happen, but it is going ahead with it nevertheless; when in 1995, 1996 or 1997, provinces have to either cut services to the most disadvantaged members of our society or borrow money to maintain services, they are the ones that will have to face criticism for their actions.
As parliamentarians, I think we have to be responsible for our actions. If we want to cut social programs, we should say so. We should not force others do that by putting them in a situation where they will have no other choice, but that is typical of this Liberal government.
We know that a reform is under way. Mr. Axworthy, the Minister of Human Resources Development, announced it. Committees are studying the matter. Experts were hired to determine the government's position. The Standing Committee on Human Resources Development is exploring different avenues. The government has no project, no overall plan. Things are done in a piecemeal way. We hear that cuts might be made in UI or in social assistance or that the student loans program might be redesigned. But since they are informed of all this in such a fragmented way, Canadians cannot assess the whole reform. And we parliamentarians cannot say to our constituents what our objectives are and what results we want to achieve in a few years.
So this proposal, which looks pretty insignificant but will have important consequences for many of our most disadvantaged fellow citizens, is a patent example of the hypocritical and often lying way in which our country is now ruled and its social policy for the poorest members of our society is designed.
I will certainly vote against the main proposal on freezing federal transfer payments, and I will vote for the amendment moved by my party to strike a standing committee for the purpose of reviewing all these proposals and gauging their impact. Parliamentarians will thus be accountable to Canadians on important measures and bills such as the one before us today.