Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today in this House to speak on a bill that, according to the government opposite, gives the provinces more decision making room, while taking $7 billion away from them, in the space of two years.
With absolute seriousness, the Liberals are proclaiming for all to hear that this is new flexible federalism. The provinces are not being given the right to withdraw; the federal government is clearly opting out financially with the aim of reducing its debt and balancing its budget, if possible. In reality, the federal government is cutting off the provinces and giving itself more right to supervise and to intervene.
During the course of this debate you have heard words like demagoguery and bilge. I am going to quote documents of the present government, not documents of the Conservatives and not documents of the wicked separatists, but documents of the Liberals, who lacked the courage to note in their red book that they would drop the most disadvantaged after cutting them off.
They also failed to note that they would make students in Quebec and Canada meet national standards after they cut off their financial support. I am going to quote documents from members and documents from ministers, who are present today in this House. The $7 billion cuts are contained in the latest budget. It provides for $2.5 billion in 1996-97 and $4.5 billion in 1997-98; 2.5 and 4.5 add up in my books to $7 billion in cuts, as set out in the budget.
As regards the national standards, which cause the Minister of Finance to say, and I quote: "[I] will be inviting all provincial governments to work together on developing, through mutual consent, a set of shared principles and objectives that could underlie the new Canada Social Transfer". This is a quote from the minister, the member for LaSalle-Émard.
What happens if there is no agreement, no mutual consent? It seems to me that, in 1981, there was agreement and mutual consent in the case of nine provinces out of ten. Since that agreement, Quebec has suffered the shame and affront of unilateral patriation. Our motto is: "Je me souviens", and we remember.
We must also bear in mind that the current Prime Minister was a major player in this coup against Quebec, and that he is now promising to be reasonable, as he told this House. But if the future is anything like the past, in Quebec, we are in for more unilateral encroachments.
They talk about agreement, respect and mutual consent, while at the same time federal officials are producing documents that I would describe politely as somewhat centralizing. The report of the national education standards committee, a 130 page report submitted to the Prime Minister recommends among other things-this is recommendation No. 1-that standards of excel-
lence be defined at every level and in every field of education and training. These standards should reflect the highest national and international levels of performance and should be regarded as the primary objective to be achieved by students.
This recommendation, made in a report dated May 1994, under the Liberals, clearly shows the direction taken by this government even before any consultations were conducted: cuts and growing interference in an area which, I remind you, has been under exclusive provincial jurisdiction since 1867. That gives us an idea of what to expect from Bill C-76 and mutual consent.
That is not all; there is more. Recommendation No. 2 states that a higher percentage of education spending should be directed to research and development. What spending? Who will control that spending? Every one in Quebec, including Ghislain Dufour and the Liberal MPPs, wants control over manpower training to be returned to the province.
Further in the report, it is recommended that the federal government provide assistance for the development and administration of tests on every basic subject. It should be pointed out that we are talking about a provincial jurisdiction here.
Another recommendation: That every level of government make it a priority to earmark sufficient funds to analyze and make maximum use of the results and implement recommended changes.
It so happens that, in Quebec, we have a Ministry of Education with 5,000 employees. Other provinces also have ministries of education. In addition, in Quebec, we are currently holding a summit conference on education. That shows how little respect the federal government has for local and provincial authorities. Why is it so bent on increasing costly duplication and overlap?
Through Bill C-76, the federal government makes $7 billion in cuts here and there. As was mentioned with regard to the report on national education standards, its presence is being intensified in exclusive local or provincial jurisdictions.
This report refers to an annual conference on national education problems, to a national review organization, and so on. From the outset, I have been trying to demonstrate that Bill C-76 provides for national standards, that the federal government's centralizing approach has led us to expect the worst as far as the definition of these standards is concerned. The only report on national education standards reflects the education policy contemplated by this government.
Unfortunately, I have been unable to address the issue of social services or that of health care, which, as my colleague from Trois-Rivières said earlier, has also been under exclusive provincial jurisdiction since 1867. Other reports by the Bloc Quebecois have demonstrated the federal government's irresponsibility in these areas in connection with Bill C-76.
In conclusion, I would like to quote two excerpts from an editorial by Michel Vastel. The first excerpt relating to Bill C-76 reads as follows: "Any province that does not mention the federal government's contribution will be fined. The financial penalty, to be recommended by the federal minister, can go as far as withdrawing the total contribution under the Canada social transfer. Such a penalty could amount to roughly $7 billion".
A Liberal member asked earlier why we objected to putting social programs, health and education in the same bag. Failure to comply with a given agreement may lead to the loss of the whole package. For Quebec, this would translate into a $7 billion penalty simply on the recommendation of the federal minister.
The second excerpt from the same editorial is this: "Notices saying something like "This service is provided thanks to a contribution from the Government of Canada" will now be displayed in hospital lobbies and on Quebec health insurance forms". The size of letters, the colour of the maple leaf will be determined by memorandums of understanding, mutual agreements and umpteen meetings of federal and provincial officials.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for giving us the opportunity to speak to Bill C-76.