Mr. Speaker, I wish to inform you right away that I will share my time with my colleague from Terrebonne.
I am very happy to speak again today to Bill C-76, which is a major bill allowing this government to implement various provisions of the hon. finance minister's budget.
As everyone will agree, one of the key elements of Bill C-76 is the planned cuts to the federal government's transfers to the provinces. With some $7 billion in cuts to be spread over the next three years, $2.5 billion will be cut in Quebec alone. For the Quebec government, this is in keeping with its relations with the federal government, which, in the last 12 years, has deprived Quebec of $14 billion. This represents over $1 billion a year, which easily explains why the Quebec government is in a difficult financial situation. This can be seen throughout the health care sector. In the Montreal region alone, there is talk of closing between seven and nine hospitals, if I remember correctly.
We must be aware that the cuts imposed on Quebec by the federal government are at the heart of the problem, particularly as far as hospitals are concerned. It is too easy to blame the messenger for the bad news. Real courage means taking responsibility and facing the situation, as the Quebec government is doing, unlike the people here who prefer to hide their decisions.
All the cuts made in recent years have led, as my Vancouver colleague pointed out, to the proliferation of food banks, which unfortunately have become increasingly important in the daily lives of too many Canadians and Quebecers. Cuts are therefore the first element of the Canada social transfer.
The second element is implementation. To add insult to injury, the federal government is not only cutting transfers to the provinces but also imposing its own standards. The provinces will not be free to use the amounts still available as they see fit. We know that in a few years cuts will not even be an issue, since there will be no more federal transfers. Yet, the federal government dares to impose standards.
As the provinces already have to comply with federal health and welfare standards, they will now be required to conform to federal standards in social services and post-secondary education. Federal involvement in these areas violates the constitution.
The rules for running the country are set out in the Canadian constitution. Section 93, in particular, provides for this kind of thing. For a great many years, we have been aware that the federal government contravenes the Canadian constitution, in particular section 93, by disregarding provincial jurisdictional claims in the areas of health, post-secondary education, social services and welfare. Despite its cuts, the federal government dares to impose and expand standards in areas that are none of its concern.
The third and last element, which is related to the Canada social transfer, is the fact that the UI fund is currently growing. Need I remind members that contributions to this fund are made by those workers lucky enough to have a job and by their employers?
Thanks to the insight of the hon. member for Mercier, who is the Bloc critic on social issues, we feel, and rightly so, that the federal government is preparing its strategy against the provinces by letting the UI fund grow, while at the same time going after the provinces by imposing cuts in the transfers made to them.
Soon, the government will be offering to the financially strapped provinces money-that is money which does not belong to it but, rather, to the workers and companies contributing to the UI fund-to help meet new needs, or to implement readjusted manpower training programs from coast to coast.
The government will tell the provinces: We have money. You do not have any, but we do. However, that money will not be the federal government's money. It will be money contributed to the UI fund by ordinary workers and by the companies which employ them. There is something immoral in all this, something which we will denounce as long as we are here.
Our position regarding the Canada social transfer is very simple: It should not exist. The federal government should mind its own business; it should comply with section 93 of the Constitution and withdraw from provincial fields of jurisdiction. The savings thus made could be used to reduce taxes, and the federal government could give the tax points to the provinces, including Quebec. The situation would then be much clearer and certainly more normal.
Bill C-76 was the subject of debate on the last opposition day, last Thursday. The official opposition denounced the operation that it saw taking shape, the scheming, and that is perhaps just the tip of the iceberg, with Bill C-76 that we are looking at today, Bill C-88 on internal trade, Bill C-46 on the new Department of Industry, and Bill C-91, an act to continue the Federal Business Development Bank under the name Business Development Bank of Canada.
We see in this bill, and that is our right, a scheme first to stop Quebec in its tracks and surround it and then to quietly lay the groundwork for a post-referendum scenario in which Quebecers will have decided to stay in Canada. And, in that scenario, the other provinces will find themselves in the same boat as Quebec, whose decision not to leave will be disastrous.
We denounced this scheme last Thursday. At that time the member for Edmonton Southwest applied some, I would think, rather unparliamentary terms to us, and I quote: "The Bloc Quebecois is suffering from tribalism, with its constant harangue that certain federal policies are centralist and target Quebec".
I would simply like to remind our colleague for Edmonton Southwest that we are doing our job, that we are perhaps showing some vision of the Canada of tomorrow, and that it is also the responsibility of the members of the Reform Party to help preserve the integrity of this Canada, because we are witnessing an insidious move by the federal government to centralize Canada to the detriment of the provincial governments that they are supposed to be representing, which will soon become regional governments. That is what the future holds. They perhaps have the right to see it this way, but this view is certainly not unanimous throughout Canada. It is disastrous for Quebec. If this scheme succeeds, a nation that has the right and the desire to exist may disappear.
To be accused of tribalism is rather insulting. I wonder whether it was ignorance or bad faith that made the hon. member for Edmonton Southwest and his colleagues use such language and show so little understanding and respect for the position of the Bloc Quebecois on the future of the people of Quebec.
Finally, I would like to draw your attention to a recent initiative that hardly reflects the intent of Bill C-76. I am referring to a flyer distributed recently in Quebec under the auspices of Power Corporation-friends, and we know who they are-and to all Canadian homes. This flyer, and we do not know how much it cost, describes the attractions of Canada Day.
To spend that kind of money now is rather obscene. I may recall that the Department of Canadian Heritage, which is responsible for publishing the flyer, had a budget of $1,066,000 for community groups which lost one million to cutbacks. This leaves $66,000. Imagine how much this flyer costs, compared with the remaining $66,000?
This seems rather unethical. Furthermore, after the flyer was sent to all Canadian homes, a poll was taken, and my wife had the privilege of being called by the Comquest firm, always at the expense of the public purse. While vaunting the merits of the National Capital, some leading questions were asked with the emphasis on Canadian unity, while pretending there was no connection at all with the referendum, certainly not.
You get people like the ineffable President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister responsible for Public Service Renewal, who make fun of the Government of Quebec and its public consultations on the future of Quebec, a government that wants to provide information and find out what people think and still has a 1-800 line to give this information to the people of Quebec.
Instead of sending these flyers, perhaps the federal government should write to the citizens of Canada and explain its vision of and its plans for the Canada of the future. That would be a lot more democratic than this miserable little flyer.