Madam Speaker, I would like to take the floor to briefly thank my Liberal colleague for so respectfully listening to all of our speeches. I would like to make a few comments before asking him my question.
As he said at the beginning of his speech, he shed some crocodile tears because of the abolition of 45,000 public service positions in Ottawa and across Canada. I have half a mind to ask him where the Liberals boasted about cutting 45,000 positions in the red book they talked so much about during the election campaign. Since everybody already knows the answer to that question, I will not ask it.
However, I would like to say that public servants probably have more reason to fear a Liberal federalist government in Ottawa than to fear the sovereignists who promise that they will be integrated into the Quebec public service-a promise that will be kept-in their draft bill. These public servants have much more to fear, and we now hold the proof-45,000 jobs cut-from the other side of the House, because that is where the cuts are coming from, and not from our side.
I would also like to mention something that my colleague did not deem worth repeating in his speech. The cuts for the next two years will be in the order of $7 billion, I repeat $7 billion. If we, on this side of the House, are mistaken, if this is not truly what is written in the Martin budget, perhaps they could give us proof and give us other figures than those that the Minister of Finance already gave us.
Now to my question. Earlier in your speech, hon. member, through you, Madam Speaker, you said to us: "There are no strings attached whatsoever to post-secondary education. Of course, we have a number of strings attached on health". So, why does a committee on national education standards exist and why has this committee already issued a 130 page report on national education standards?