Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to take the floor to talk about the amendments to Bill C-76. When I heard the hon. member for Gatineau-La Lièvre talk about the monetary system and cuts in the public service, when the subject is really amendments to the Crow's Nest Pass policy and to the subsidy to Western grain farmers, I thought I had got my day wrong.
Well, we cannot very well prevent him from talking about the subjects dear to his heart, but I am happy to hear that he does not share the views of his Minister of Finance, and I urge him to point that out to the minister, who is following a monetary policy basically similar, if not identical, to that of his Conservative predecessors. I also urge him to mention it to his constituents.
This is a good illustration of a policy which makes it difficult to deal equitably with an issue. It happened in the past, and it continues in the budget, which treats dairy producers from Quebec and grain producers from the West differently. This is the continuation of a long series of historical decisions regarding agriculture and rail transport which, in both cases, worked to the advantage of Western Canada.
I am quite pleased to point this out, because we still hear Liberal and Reform members criticize the fact that Quebec receives, in some areas, transfer payments or equalization payments. They called them gifts to Quebec, but they do not criticize this policy which, for a long time, has allowed the West to develop. The development of the railway system cost billions of dollars, and allowed a lot of farmers to grow and prosper in Western Canada. However, we seem to forget all the money that was poured into this because it is less visible nowadays, since it was done over a period of time.
But now, with all the financial choices and spending cuts we face, this resurfaces. A moment ago, my colleague from Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot talked about that. When the unemployed are victims of cuts, we do not say to them that we are going to allow them transition, adjustment periods. Soon, we will be making changes to the Canada pension plan or looking at the income security program, and throughout this debate that will be held in the fall, I am sure that these changes will not provide for long transition periods for the persons affected.
But when we speak about capital gains, family trusts, and other matters, then we have to have long transition periods to give people a chance to adapt. However, when the ordinary people, who are the most affected, are concerned, we forget about that.
I talked briefly about the impact of this policy on the development of the railway system. This has also encouraged farmers. For years now, in Quebec, we have been told that every rail section must be viable. When they are not, the tendency is to privatise them, to get rid of them, to give them to anybody, and not to keep them. Under the same policy out west, we have always supported the maintenance of this system, because they were very clearly linked to the development of the farming industry.
Earlier, I tried to describe the situation in this way: if you are a grain producer, it is not the dairy truck which goes by your house, but the rail system, to help you, support you or allow you to send your crop to the export points. Over the years, things have evolved. At the beginning, almost 90 per cent of the financial support came from the government.
And now, financial choices have to be made. In its budget, the federal government says that it must cut in that area, but it is planning a $1.6 billion compensation package. An important factor to consider is the fiscal side of the equation. When we talk about non-taxable money, the amount is higher than that, perhaps more than $2 billion.
In the same budget, we are told that tens of millions of dollars will be cut for milk producers in Quebec, but no mention is made of any compensation. So, we have the unfair treatment given by the federal government which has supported the railway system and supported Western Canada to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, on the one hand, and has funded development differently in Quebec, by giving it less support, on the
other hand. And now, this historical imbalance is being perpetuated, under the pretext that market forces must now be left to come into play.
In Quebec, there is no compensation package, no transition measure. The federal government is saying to milk producers that they can raise their prices, and that they have the flexibility to do that. In other words, it is saying to Quebec consumers that they will pay for that. We account for some 23.8 per cent of total tax revenues, so we will also pay 23.8 per cent of the compensation package given to Western producers.
In this bill, there are many examples of the federal government's approach toward development in the different regions, particularly those in Quebec. This is the same bill sets up transfer payment negotiations which, for Quecbec, can only lead to reduced transfer payments, and a smaller percentage than what it is getting now. No matter what solution is found, I am convinced that Quebec will not receive more than before.
The Ontario government will come to the negotiating table with many huge claims. This has been going on for several years, and just because Ontario changes government does not mean that these claims will also change. Quebec is facing cuts that will affect it more than the other provinces. It is said that more than 40 per cent of the cuts will be made in Quebec. In the same bill, dairy producers are also being hit harder, because they will not get any compensation package.
There are many reasons why, once this bill is passed, the federal government will be even less committed than before to supporting Quebec's development. These people are the same ones telling us that this system is cost effective, that it is good for Quebecers.
I want to raise a point in response to what the hon. member for Gatineau-La Lièvre said about federal public servants. Whenever the issue of sovereignty comes up, the people across the way are eager to tell us that it would spell disaster for the Outaouais, although they are saying very little about the roughly 15,000 jobs they are cutting in the region. The hon. member was very subdued in the House, probably because he has a carefully crafted quote for his next householder. He does not criticize his government's decisions in the newspapers or anywhere else. He did not defend them in committee. Where was he? Where are these great champions of the Outaouais who enjoy telling us that we are very well served by the current system? This bill also contains provisions affecting federal public servants.
The government whip did not rise either. Government members make timid speeches to keep their constituents happy; their remarks are never very searing. There are fiscal choices to be made. If the Western Grain Transportation Act must indeed be repealed, they should stop trying to provide indirect financial support and incentives, and stop attempting to raise the Liberal Party's profile in the West, as was recently done in Manitoba. Although we understand why they want to improve Liberal prospects in that region, $2.2 billion is a lot to pay just to buy votes. We have serious reservations here. If this policy must be scrapped, they should have the courage to do so now and to respect the commitments made by the Bloc Quebecois.