Mr. Speaker, first I want to thank the hon. member for Jonquière, who in my estimation made a good analysis which, along with the one made this morning by another Bloc member, clearly illustrates the problems with Bill C-100. There are several problems which affect Quebec but, more importantly, this bill is yet another example of federal interference in an area of exclusive provincial jurisdiction.
The hon. member pointed out that, almost every time a bill is introduced in the House, Bloc Quebecois members rise to condemn the fact that it infringes on an area of provincial jurisdiction. This is a rather recent phenomenon here. Indeed, in the last 15 or 20 years, there have been Quebec MPs in this House who were not Bloc members but who rarely got up to condemn federal interference in areas which come under Quebec's jurisdiction.
This is explained by the fact that, whenever Quebecers were represented here, it was by Conservative or Liberal members who were in a minority position and who had to toe the party line within their caucus. Since their caucus was formed by a majority representing the rest of Canada, they had to defend the interests of Canada before those of Quebec. This applied even when there was an obvious consensus in Quebec, that is when federalists and sovereignists of all political colours were of the same opinion.
The hon. member just mentioned the fact that Daniel Johnson sent a letter to the minister, in which he described precisely our position. Therefore, there is obvious consensus on Bill C-100, among federalists and sovereignists alike in Quebec, with respect to this intentional intrusion on matters of provincial jurisdiction, and I hope that the government will take this into account.
Another obvious example of consensus in Quebec being ignore by the government is the fact that manpower training and everything connected with manpower training should be handed over to Quebec. Every political party and all of the stakeholders in Quebec, be it management or labour, obviously agree on this, yet the federal government is not responding. We in the Bloc Quebecois have every right to defend these positions.
It is a well known fact that movements such as the Parti Quebecois and the Bloc Quebecois were born as a result of the realization that we were a political minority. And when we played the power game, whether within the Conservative Party or the Liberal Party, we remained a minority and, as such, had to defend Canada's interests. This the origin of the emergence of the sovereignist movement in Quebec; we realized that we were caught in an ongoing process of being reduced to a political minority.
My question to my colleague, who has studied several pieces of legislation similar to Bill C-100, is: does he not realize that, for several years now, we have tried to explain to our fellow citizens what being a political minority means, and that, to a certain extent, being a political minority leads to becoming an economic minority, and that, when we deal with Quebecers, we should add this dimension to our debate?