Mr. Speaker, as my colleague says, it is a warm exchange of views.
Concerning the National Forum on Health, I wish to quote comments made by the member for Saint-Henri-Westmount when she was a provincial minister: "The federal government's behaviour is absurd". That is what the Quebec Minister of Health, Lucienne Robillard, said in an interview on the phone.
"How can we even think of reforming the health care system without the participation of the provinces who are responsible for delivering the services? It is simply unacceptable". That was reported in the September 27, 1994 issue of La Presse .
This is what your colleague said, the one that is now among us, your courageous colleague who was not elected but appointed as a member of Parliament. A member had been democratically elected, but he was given a plum position in the Prime Minister's office in exchange for his riding, where this courageous minister had to struggle fiercely to be elected.
I want to quote this same minister in response to your statement. Here is what she said as minister. "I say things as I see them",-this is what your colleague for Saint-Henri-Westmount said-"in Quebec the provincial government is still the level the most directly, exclusively and inextricably linked to the future of our society. A distinct society which, whatever we might think or say, is able to conduct its own destiny and prepare its future". That is what we want to do in Quebec-prepare our future by becoming a people, by becoming a country".