Mr. Speaker, I am ready to address myself to the vast hordes of Reform members who are on the opposite benches. It is simply a function of education. There are times when I fall back into old habits of trying to say "let's learn together in this House".
When they put out in their minority report their opposition based on a false premise, one has to take issue with it. One wonders, as we found today in question period, whether some members of the House actually read the legislation we present. We heard today from members of the Bloc that they had not read the bill on HRD. We tabled it four months ago and they got around to raising questions four months later, which has something to do with a certain date at the end of October, I suppose.
Clearly Reform members have not read clause 6 of this bill, which I will read. It says "The obligation to implement employment equity does not require an employer to hire or promote unqualified persons". With respect to the public sector, it requires that hiring or promotion be based on selection according to merit. In the report there are many references to merit being done away with and quotas being imposed, yet the legislation says the opposite.
Clause 33, which I know is way down the bill and takes at least five minutes to get to, reads: "The commission may not give a direction and no tribunal may make an order where that direction or order would impose a quota on an employer". Is that pretty clear, that no commission or tribunal can make any order imposing a quota?
Again, why does the Reform Party, in its members' speeches, its minority reports, in its public language, say that quotas are being imposed? Do they have a secret bill we do not know about? Have they written something we do not know about, which they are going to pop unsuspectingly on the Canadian public? It could be, but it has nothing to do with Bill C-64. It is important we understand that.