Mr. Speaker, I am happy to speak on the amendment that the Bloc is proposing in order to eliminate that clause. On May 9, the federal Minister of Human Resources Development tabled his Bill C-28, the Canada Student Financial Assistance Act. The Bloc Quebecois is opposed to this bill and I support the amendment on the outright elimination of clause 14(7).
This bill as worded is as if the government wanted to eliminate 30 years of history. The hon. member for Mercier was saying earlier that the Canadian act has been in effect since 1964. Quebec has given itself its own system, but with this bill, it is as if that system did not exist. It is a kind of negation of history.
We must remember that education is recognized by the Canadian Constitution as an exclusively provincial jurisdiction. However, the federal government has long been assuming certain powers in that sector, such as student financial assistance. In order to be able to interfere in the education sector, it refers to its spending authority. It is ironical that a government with an accumulated debt of more that $500 billion and an estimated annual deficit of almost $40 billion, is behaving as if it was on top of it. Because it has spending authority, it says: "Let us spend". Whether or not it is able to spend does not make any difference; it just spends money.
The height of irresponsibility in the bill is that the government, with revenues that it does not have, is preparing to put even further into debt the young people that it wants to train. If this is not the perfect example of what can be called a vicious circle, then I do not know what it is. The government spends money that it does not have and asks the so-called beneficiaries to foot the bill without knowing whether it can create jobs for them!
Until now, provincial governments which, like the Quebec government, managed their own student financial assistance program could almost automatically exercise their right to opt out of the federal program and receive an alternative payment. This system worked relatively well for all. However, with the new bill introduced by the Minister of Human Resources Development, the rules are completely different.
The provinces will not be able to exercise as easily their opting out right. This bill provides unacceptable new procedures with which provincial governments will have to comply if they want to exercise their opting out right and receive alternative payments. I refer here to clause 14(7) of the bill.
We feel that this bill is, as my colleagues from Levis and Mercier mentioned before, a centralizing measure which threatens the provincial autonomy recognized in the Canadian Constitution, by giving the Minister of Human Resources Development too much power. One wonders if the government is not seeking, through this bill, to create its own Department of Education and to impose national education standards.
Speaking of national standards, it is important to recall the basic, recurring problem in this area. The federal government imposes standards, then-invoking a lack of financial resources or other excuses-gradually withdraws while maintaining the standards.
To prove that, I will simply remind you that as far as established programs financing is concerned, including post-secondary education, in 1977-78, federal funding amounted to 48 per cent of the funds required for cost-shared programs, while in 1994-95, they will only amount to 32 per cent. If the federal government pays only 32 per cent, it means that someone else will have to pay the difference and it will be the provincial governments. Even so, they will have to comply with the national standards.
Let me give you another example. I would like to talk about the changes that occurred in the revenues of the government of Quebec between 1984 and the projections for 1998. In 1984, federal transfers accounted for 28 per cent of the Quebec budget, while in 1998, they are expected to account for only 15 per cent. There again, the people of Quebec will have to pay.
That way of doing things and imposing national standards takes away responsibility from the provincial governments which are elected governments and which are much closer to the people than the federal government.
That way of doing things shows that local needs are ignored. Much has been said about the major differences between the various regions of Canada, but national standards do not take those differences into account at all. The bill that we are debating is just like the others. It assumes that as far as student loans and education are concerned, the needs are exactly the same in Newfoundland, Quebec and British Columbia.
Finally, these national standards infringe upon democracy because people in the provinces have elected members to provincial legislatures, they have placed their confidence in them and given them powers, and the introduction of national standards will eventually erode an important part of provincial responsibility.
In fact, clause 14 provides that, in order to receive alternative payments, a provincial government will have to satisfy, not inform but satisfy, the minister, I quote: "by written notice received by the Minister before the beginning of the loan year in question, that, in relation to the matter in question, the provincial student financial assistance plan has substantially the same effect as the plan established by this Act".
This is totally unacceptable and I wonder, if the Supreme Court were to study this intrusion in a provincial jurisdiction, it would not decide in favour of the arguments presented by the Official Opposition.
It is unacceptable that provincial governments would have to justify their student financial assistance plans to the federal Minister of Human Resources Development since education is exclusively a provincial jurisdiction.
In the context we all know very well, where a large proportion of Quebecers are against the federal system, one could say the central government is doing all it can to provoke a general outcry. This seems due to a very questionable sense of politics; it is hard to say if it is pure stupidity or provocation.
This whole question is particularly important for Quebec because it is crucial that Quebecers manage their own education system.
Let me conclude by saying that Quebec's record in this regard shows that Quebec has acted responsibly in setting up such a system. We must also keep in mind that education is a vital instrument for cultural and linguistic development. Quebec cannot afford not to be in control of this sphere of activity. Our French-language universities are shining brightly. They are almost everywhere and their vitality leaves no doubt. You can find graduates of French-language universities in every sector. I think we set a remarkable example for the rest of Canada. While developing its French-language universities, Quebec was generous enough-I think the word is exact-to allow its anglophone minority to have its own universities. No other province did such a thing, except New Brunswick with Moncton University. Everywhere else, francophones must make do with bilingual universities. We know the results.