Mr. Speaker, I did not want to take part in this debate but so much talk of good horse sense by my colleagues finally caught my attention and influenced me.
This is totally contradictory. A few months ago, there was a referendum in Quebec and a few days before that referendum, we saw the Prime Minister stand up, as another Prime minister had done before the 1980 referendum, and promise with his hand on his heart that yes, the Canadian federation would be changed to take the interests and demands of the people of Quebec into account,
but, poof!-as the Prime Minister would say-today all that has vanished.
In this debate, government members are telling us that they cannot do otherwise than what they are about to do because the Constitution and the British North America Act must be respected. How nicely put. How is it that respecting the Constitution has suddenly become such an absolute and inescapable criterion? What have the successive Conservative and Liberal governments done since 1867? We had time to observe them.
What have they all done since then? With their spending powers, they have intruded on areas of provincial jurisdiction under the Constitution. And, as my colleague from Gaspé put it, they have encroached on these provincial jurisdictions. At the time, the Constitution was not that important. What was important was the spending power.
But when the members from the Bloc Quebecois make claims in the name of good horse sense and talk about the Quebec's will to take its rightful place and exert some influence on lawmaking in this country, the only important thing is the Constitution.
Not too long ago, some time after the referendum debate, there was a speech from the throne. What did it say? It said that the federal government would no longer interfere in areas under provincial jurisdiction. I agree that this is an area under federal jurisdiction, but we could have thought that, following the speech from the throne, there would be a willingness to change the federal system.
It is obvious, as my colleague from Trois-Rivières mentioned earlier, that this willingness does not exist. There is no willingness to make changes. It seems that, in this country, federalist members, federalist politicians are unable to learn from the past, even from the recent past. We are constantly sending them messages, but to no avail. Here is another opportunity that the government is preparing to miss.
It would be a chance for the Liberals to prove that they can adjust, that they can transform the Canadian federation, as the prime minister likes to say. However, they are unable to do so because they have a different vision of this country. They have a vision where the government that has the most powers has to be in Ottawa and where the other governments, the provincial governments, have partial jurisdiction over matters of little importance.
The same thing happens each time we have a significant bill before us: the rhetoric is there, but the government does not deliver the goods.