Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Bloc Quebecois needed an issue to shore up his leadership. The leader of the PQ branch office dragged the governement and several individuals through the mud, in short, he belittled this whole institution.
But after oral question period, we realized that his research department was nothing more than a newspaper clippings department. And since they were somewhat insulted when they realized that maybe the Conservative Party had a foothold, he decided that it was the ploy he needed to strenghen his leadership.
Their balloon went bust, they need a plan B. This morning they were talking about allegations, and now they are saying: “No, no, this is not in the motion. The motion says that the issue of public financing should be reviewed”.
Now that they do not have anything more to say on the matter of allegations, they are trying to patch things up; as we know, the only purpose of the Bloc is to play havoc with people's reputation, to do anything they can in favour of separation, their nice principles are nothing but double standards; the only thing they are interested in is in promoting separation, by every means at their disposal, and i do mean every means.
I will begin with the allegations made by the member for Laurentides. She claimed that the employment centre had been moved from Saint-Jérôme to Saint-Antoine supposedly because of some contributions, that it was suspicious, that there was a consensus in the region.
I will set the record straight, and it is important because if we want to create a relationship based on trust between voters and the House, if we want to regain the credibility the Bloc is undermining daily, it is important to set the record straight. They talk about allegations, but I will talk about facts.
The Department of Human Resources Development tried to find premises for the Canada Employment Centre in Saint-Jérôme because the lease expired on May 31, 1998. The Department of Public Works called for tenders. The lease was allocated in an open, equitable and transparent fashion.
Most important, our goal was to accommodate the needs of the client and get the best value for money for Canadian taxpayers. Therefore, we chose the lowest bidder. By doing so, we will save $280,000 over five years.
Now they say: “This is terrible”. They accused me of being narrow minded, they used strong words. When they have no point, they use strong words. They claim that there was a regional consensus. To begin with, I would like to remind you that Saint-Antoine-des-Laurentides is located 1.4 kilometres from Saint-Jérôme and is still in the riding of Laurentides.
While they were moaning and groaning, the government said: “It is important that the population have an employment centre; it must therefore stay in the riding”. But those on the other side do not mention that, it bothers them.
I have a news release dated September 25, 1997, from the office of the mayor of Saint-Antoine, which reads as follows:
The campaign that some members of the MRC of Rivière-du-Nord have been waging for three weeks is giving the Municipalité régionale du comté de Rivière-du-Nord a reputation for partisanship and we therefore have an obligation to condemn this situation and the actions of those involved immediately.
The public's perception of elected officials in each town and municipality is very critical and rightly so. Our perception is all the more critical when the nine mayors of the MRC are grouped in the council that forms the MRC.
I can read this or table it if you wish. They said, among other things, that the important thing was to get better value for money for the citizens.
They said the following:
Finally, we believe that as the letter from Minister Pettigrew on September 16, 1997 indicated, the decision regarding the Canada Employment Centre must be a business decision based on the best value for money.
It is signed Normand Plouffe, mayor of Saint-Antoine; Gilles Cyr, mayor of the municipality of Prévost; Denis Y. Laflamme, mayor of the municipality of Saint-Hippolyte; Gilles Papineau, mayor of the municipality of New Glascow; and Hervé Gagné, acting for the municipality of Saint-Colomban at the MRC.
Do you know what that means? For those who do not know the riding of Laurentides, I can speak about it because I come from the nearby city of Joliette.
It means that not only there was no consensus, but that almost a majority of the regional council's members thought it was a good thing because the change was necessary. Again and again, those members make a fuss. There is moaning and groaning, low-down party politics about some allegedly partisan changes, but that is not true. Once again, the government stood up for the population. It wanted to save that employment centre for its users and, above all, wanted to save money to benefit taxpayers. What does that mean? It means that in these difficult economic times, we have no money to waste. That is my answer to the hon. member.
How much foolishness and stupidity, how many false allegations did we hear from the Bloc Quebecois? You have to understand one thing. They are trying to find a ploy, any ploy, because their leader is threatened. He fears that he might get the same medicine his predecessor got. I do not understand. The Bloc had a good leader in the hon. member for Roberval, but now the same thing seems to be starting all over again. I can hardly wait for Christmas. Things will probably happen. Some hon. members here, who are looking at us, played a little political game. They might play it again because things are not going very well.
Today, they are supposed to be talking about donations to political parties. We are accused of being the puppets of the corporations. Questions are being raised about our electoral system, which is probably one of the most highly regarded in the world. Why do we keep sending delegations around the world? Bloc members know it, they are included in the delegations.