Thank you for recognizing me, Madam Speaker. I appreciate this opportunity to comment on the remarks made by my colleague, who quite aptly demonstrated that the federal government's action in areas of provincial jurisdiction is inappropriate. Earlier, the hon. member for Outremont rose in this House, offended at the thought that Bloc members could question his nationalistic sentiment. From his place, he stated loudly that he was not the least nationalistic of Liberal members, thereby suggesting that he was certainly the most nationalistic one of them.
If that is so, if the hon. member for Outremont is the most nationalistic of Liberal members, I understand why the people of Quebec voted for the Bloc Quebecois. If, by any chance, we did not attain sovereignty in Quebec, I am convinced that we would keep being reelected over and over forever, with our members whose nationalistic sentiments are as strong as his.
I would like to come back on one aspect of the speeches we have heard, which my colleague has raised. All day long, Liberal members have been telling us that the national standards that their government is about to impose on us with its Canada social transfer would deal with principles. "We will give the provinces every latitude", they said. "They will be free to do administer as they please programs which fall under their jurisdiction anyway".
If that is the case, I would like to know why we can read the following-and there was no mention of this in the discussion on principles today-at clause 37 of Bill C-76:
In order that a province may qualify for a full cash contribution-
This must be the money.
-referred to in section 5, the government of the province-
Among other conditions, the one listed in ( b ) reads:
shall give recognition to the Canada Health and Social Transfer in any public documents, or in any advertising or promotional material, relating to insured health services and extended health care services in the province.
To conclude, because I want to give my colleague the time to comment, what does this mean? Does it mean that the federal government-as I said this morning, this is the "flag on the hood" syndrome-absolutely wants every document and every thing distributed to taxpayers by the provinces to bear the Canadian flag? Does it mean that every hospital bedpan will have to be marked to show federal contribution? Is this the kind of publicity they seek?