Mr. Speaker, I sat on the committee with the hon. member for almost three weeks. There is a premise that no consensus has been established in Quebec.
I listened very intently to the member's speech. He failed to mention that debate on the creation of linguistic school boards has been ongoing in Quebec upward of 30 years. He also failed to mention there is a quasi-unanimity on the creation of linguistic school boards.
I will grant him one thing. There is no consensus on how to go about creating linguistic school boards. The role our committee undertook was to determine the appropriateness of the Quebec request under section 93 and the bilateral amending formula for section 43.
It behoves me to hear the Reform Party time and time again refuse categorically to accept the fact that there is a consensus. The consensus is large. Other than, as the Reform has always called for, holding another referendum on the issue I do not see how Reformers can ignore it.
I have a duty as a member of Parliament to make sure there is a consensus among the minority that is affected. Let us be clear what we are talking about. We are talking about removing the application of articles 1 through 4 in section 93 in Quebec.
I will be even more specific. Section 93 protects Catholic and Protestant education in the city of Montreal but not the island of Montreal and in the city of Quebec proper but not the region of Quebec. That is the protection it gives.
We talk about consensus. The provincial Protestant Association of Teachers represents approximately 6,500 teachers. The non-denominationals came to us and said they were in favour. La Fédération des comités des parents de la province de Québec is made up of over 40,000 parents, French and English speaking, Catholic and Protestant. It represents 172 parents' committees.
La Centrale de l'enseignement du Québec, the largest group of 130,000 members, and la Coalition pour la déconfessionalisation du système scolaire—I can cite survey after survey—all called on the government to acquiesce to Quebec's demands because that province in its infinite wisdom sought for almost 30 years to find a solution to modernizing the school system.
I ask the hon. member, is it appropriate in a modern society such as Canada today to provide for the constitutional protection of just two classes of religions, Protestants and Catholics, or should we not let each province decide what is best, in its own interests, in its own regions and in its own communities?