Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to speak on Bill C-76, an act to implement various provisions of the last budget tabled by the Minister of Finance. The main purpose of this bill, as everyone knows, is to create the Canada social transfer which will have many repercussions.
The new Canada social transfer will, first of all, lead to cuts in the federal transfers to provinces in the upcoming years. As we mentioned over and over again in order to show how serious the situation is, we can expect during the next three years $3 billion in cuts in all of Canada, including $2.5 billion in cuts in Quebec alone.
Let me digress here. It is hard to talk about figures and statistics when we know that behind these figures are the harsh realities of life some people have to face. For example, in the province of Quebec, some hospitals will have to be closed, even though an increasingly significant portion of the Quebec population is having some serious problems, especially in Montreal where there is talk of a broken Quebec, and where life for some of our fellow Quebecers will only get tougher.
I am both somewhat surprised and disappointed to have so little time to address this issue, because I would have had a lot to say. I would like to respond to a statement made last week by our colleague from Edmonton Southwest who, in response to the debate initiated by the Bloc Quebecois on the rationale for Bills C-76, C-46, C-88 and C-91, referred to the Bloc members' behaviour as tribalism. I find it most deplorable.
By acting this way, we are assuming our responsibilities as the official opposition, and the Reform Party should, but does not, do the same at least to protect Canadian provinces against this unprecedented attack by the federal government which quietly forges ahead, bit by bit, to build tomorrow's Canada.
We are talking about it not only because Quebec is affected, but because if the answer to the referendum happens to be no, which would be most unfortunate, all Quebecers would wake up the next day as part of a new Canada that would have been built behind their backs. It is the very notion of a distinct nation that is at stake, the survival of the Quebec people, but it is tomorrow's Canada that is being built here, piece by piece, by people like the whip who refuse to admit what is really going on.