Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to the hon. member for Rimouski-Témiscouata while she kept hacking at federalism and the Canadian government. I would like to hear her criticize in the same way the threats made by the government of Quebec and its Minister of Education, Mr. Garon, to the university located in Rimouski, in her own riding.
Some people dare to accuse the Liberal members and to accuse me, the member for Bonaventure-Îles-de-la-Madeleine, an elected representative from grassroots Quebec, of not standing up for Quebec and my own area, and I find that totally unacceptable.
In my riding and in the vast majority of rural ridings in Quebec, people are mostly concerned about the economy. They are concerned about jobs. We are thinking about our future, but we know very well that the federal government, the Canadian government, is a worthy partner for us. I think the federal government has shown in the last few weeks or the last few months, in fact in the 18 months since it has been in office, that we want to get Canadians and Quebecers back to work. We set up an infrastructure program. In fact, the current government of Quebec is glad to use it. It is glad to show that it can get some of the workers in smaller localities in grassroots Quebec back to work.
By the way, on the native issue, I have not heard the hon. member say a word about their living conditions in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada. They did not tell us about how dismayed the whole world was when these unfortunate events happened in Quebec and what it did to the reputation of Quebec and Canada. True, I was not in Canada at the time, I was in Japan and, for a while, in France. But, believe me, all my friends, my associates and my acquaintances kept telling me about this problem with natives in Canada. And it saddened me to know that the government could not find a peaceful solution to the problem. But the Quebec government did call on the federal government for help. The premier of Quebec has the right to call on the Canadian army in a very difficult situation.
That is what happened. It is Quebec that asked for the army's involvement, not the Canadian government. The federal government spent $133 million to send in the army and the RCMP.
The Canadian government spends millions of dollars every year to maintain the peace elsewhere in the world and to ensure that other countries will follow Canada's example. But I do not want to digress. About the natives, it is the federal government which takes on the responsibility of creating a healthy economy at the local level for these people. We build houses and even cabins for them. We do everything to help them.
All we are asking of the government of Quebec is that it stop playing politics to the detriment of the most disadvantaged people. Everybody here knows that natives are not the most spoiled people in our country. Nevertheless, we hear the opposition and even some government members say that natives are treated differently. The claim that they are better treated than most Canadians is false. Suicide, alcoholism and all the social ills imaginable are more prevalent in aboriginal communities.
I grew up one kilometre away from an Indian reserve. And believe me when I say that I saw with my very eyes how these poor people were treated. People were reluctant to give them jobs, to let them play on their hockey teams or to welcome them in our French Catholic schools. Unfortunately, I think we all should examine our consciences.
Today's debate was an example of negotiations to come between a sovereign Quebec and Canada. We got stuck on tiny details: who owed who $333 million, $79 million, $125 million and for what, and how Quebec has been taken for a ride for the past 125 years. How will we ever manage to negotiate? Now I ask the people watching us on television, do you think that we will ever be able to orchestrate a separation if, today, all they could do was condemn the federal government for wrong-doing? And they want to divvy up the debt, and share our currency and passport? They just want to coast on Canada's prestige.
The opposition should be told to go back to the drawing board. This new approach they are proposing to Quebecers is utterly unacceptable. They should just ask the question once and for all: "Do you want to stay in Canada, yes or no?"