Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to what my hon. colleague for Saint-Léonard, in eastern Montreal, had to say and I am always flabbergasted to hear him speak as if he built this country and almost as if he were the father of our vast and beautiful country.
Earlier, we realized that it is almost pointless for us to make the demands mentioned in the motion before the House. The partisan determination shown by our colleagues opposite indicated early on that our efforts would be useless, that their minds were made up and that, even if we argued all night, it would not do us any good.
Since I have nothing better to do then, I will try to disprove the nonsense uttered by the hon. member for Saint-Léonard. I want to give him a brief lesson in history. It would not hurt the hon. member for Edmonton Southwest to listen, since his knowledge of the history of Canada also seems kind of lacking.
Towards the end of the last century, while 2 million Quebecers, about to starve to death, were forced to leave their country to go to work in the New England cotton mills, the Canadian government sent for Eastern Europeans to settle in western Canada. It gave them land, work animals, horses, chickens, the right to cut timber to build their houses and a lot of other things, and 50 per cent of these expenses were paid for by the people of Canada, half of which then was paid by Quebec. That is what they called profitable federalism. It remained a profitable enterprise for a long time, but it had been even more profitable in 1840, when the Union Act was signed. At that time, Quebec formed the majority within that famous union.
Our ancestors, not very well educated individuals who had been pretty badly treated less than 100 years before by the invaders who had come to strip them of everything they had, used the old sock. They stashed away their savings, they did not get into debt. The villages were not in debt. Quebec was not in debt at the time. But Ontario, which was a hive of activity, had to borrow large amounts of money in order to build infrastructures for its towns. All the lines were blurred. The two debts were not kept separate, with the result that the people of Quebec had to pay over half the debt of Ontario, to the exclusive benefit of the latter. This is yet another example the so-called profitable federalism, as the Liberals see it.
I would say to the member for Bonaventure-Îles-de-la-Madeleine that the Gaspé Peninsula, where I was born, lost most of its inhabitants at that time. The member must have, like me, one or perhaps many ancestors who were forced to leave for the United States because they could not make a living in this so-called great country. So I find it hard to listen to people who have been here for something like 20 years say that they helped build this country. I am willing, of course, to acknowledge their qualities, their contributions, but many of them profited a lot more from Canada than our ancestors did 250 and 300 years ago.
And it boils down to the fact that we have rights in this country and that we want them to be respected, that is all.
A lot has gone on here. A member of the Reform Party just told me that, after 18 months, he has discovered that we are alike. Frankly, I find that almost insulting. I resent it. Reform members are in favour of the death penalty, "Hang them quick and do not waste too much rope, and then next, please". That is the philosophy of the Reform Party. Fill up our prisons with whoever had the nerve to insult someone else. That is the right-wing policy of the Reform Party.
I even heard a Reform member say in this House: "My children are not educated, I forbid them to get an education. It is my belief and I adhere to it". But if Canada needs an ambassador, that member is frustrated that the government will not give the job to his son whom he refused to send to school. That is the Reform philosophy. It seems to be quite popular in that region because there are quite a few of them in this House. It is something that I heard here.
Anyway, Quebec is asking the federal government today for a certain sum of money for the natives in the James Bay area. It is time for the federal government to show off, as it has always done. When it came to paying $279 million to give a school board to a particular ethnic group in western Canada in order to show the greatness of Canada and of multiculturalism, it did not cut corners. It came up with the money. And when members of the same ethnic group in Toronto asked the government to give them the same thing it had given their friends in Vancouver, it obliged. It did not matter if the cost was $250 or $300 million, the government found the money. Quebecers did not complain in those days. On the contrary, 74 out of this gang of 75 chose to vote for those expenditures, in order to buy peace I guess.
One thing leading to another, we ended up with a $550 billion debt. I wonder if Canada will not follow in the footsteps of Dow Corning, the breast implant manufacturer, and file under our Bankruptcy Act pretty soon. We are asking to be paid for the services we have delivered to native people for which the federal government is legally responsible. We gave them the same education we gave young Quebecers who lived in the area. I suppose it was a good education.
Now the time has come to pay the bill but the federal government is shirking its responsibilities. It is a bit like the guy who goes to eat in a restaurant, pretends he is going to the washroom after he finishes his meal, exits through the back door and avoids the bill. That is what the government is doing right now, or it looks like it.
Why not face up to a situation that exists and that deserves to be dealt with, not because it concerns Quebec but because it is a matter of justice. There was an agreement. The Minister of Interdepartmental Affairs wants to refer this issue to committees and to government officials, all that for a total claim of $333 million. Yet, it took the government only 20 minutes to free up $20 million for the Winnipeg arena. Things did not drag on in this case.