Mr. Speaker, I just listened to the member from the Bloc. It reinforces why it is important for all of us who believe in Canada and want to see Canada remain united in the future to get our act together and to be able to say something to Quebec that will be acceptable, if not to the hon. member who just spoke, which is unlikely, then to a great majority of Quebeckers who may wish to stay in Canada if they feel the rest of Canada is in a position to offer them the possibility of a relationship that satisfies both their own self-understanding and a vision of Canada that is acceptable inside Quebec and outside Quebec.
I welcome the motion by the Reform Party. I welcome the news that the government intends to support it. Certainly the New Democratic Party also intends to support the motion.
One of the reasons for doing that is the need to show that in spite of differences which may exist from time to time on other issues, and indeed from time to time on the constitution, on the unity file, there is the possibility of coming together on this day in support of this resolution.
I hoped this would be a foreshadowing of future events in which we could come together around something more substantial, either the Calgary declaration as it stands or the Calgary declaration as amended or as followed up on in respect of other concerns that have been raised and will be raised in the course of the consultation.
The very nature of consultation, it seems to me, is that one is open, and I presume the premiers are open, to suggestions on how to approve the declaration or how to move beyond the declaration in ways that address very legitimate concerns that have been raised.
The first one that comes to my mind is the concern raised by the aboriginal leadership in this country, that there is wording in the Calgary declaration which, in their judgment, does not reflect properly their status within Canada, their self-understanding within Canada.
I and my party share their concerns. They are not concerns that would lead us to vote against this motion because this motion is about the consultation process. I note that even the Reform Party, whose members drafted this motion, are very careful not to indicate support for the Calgary declaration. Support for the premiers in their efforts, support for the consultation process, yes, but if one reads the motion very carefully, as I did, nowhere does it express support for the Calgary declaration. I do not know whether that is intentional. It could be intentional with good intentions. On the other hand, it could be intentional with not so good intentions.
Perhaps future speakers from the Reform Party could indicate the reason why. It does not necessarily vitiate one's commitments to consultation to take a stand for oneself as to the worthiness or unworthiness of a particular resolution.
One can then go out, consult and find that there are legitimate criticisms, legitimate suggestions as to how it can be improved and how those suggestions can be acted upon.
I would be interested in knowing from future Reform Party speakers just where they stand on the Calgary declaration as opposed to all the language of support for the process.
It seems to me, again with respect to what has been said so far by the Reform Party in support of its motion, that much of what the first speaker said had to do with his insistence that the Government of Canada consult with the people of Quebec now, immediately, yesterday, on the Calgary declaration.
I listened to the minister say that he felt that the time was not right for that kind of consultation. I tend to agree with the minister. I say to the hon. member for Edmonton Strathcona that I think it would be a serious mistake to go into Quebec either through the instrument of the federal government or in some other way to create another round of expectations if we are not sure in the rest of Canada that we can actually say with a certain amount of unity and a certain amount of certainty that this is what we agreed upon.
We want to know what the people of Quebec think about this and we want to know their opinion on this.
At some point that has to happen, obviously. If it were not to happen, then that would be a serious mistake. When we reach that point, I do not think we should be fearful of the provincial government in this regard.
I think we have a right as Canadians and the federal government has a right as the federal government to consult Quebeckers on this issue. I do not say this out of caution or out of fear of what the view of the Quebec government is on this.
I just offer it as a tactical reflection, if you like, that the worst thing that could happen is one more round in which expectations are created in Quebec and then Quebec finds one more time that the rest of Canada really does not have its act together and cannot agree among itself, therefore whatever expectations would be created by going through a process in Quebec now would be disappointed.
It seems to me that that is the point of the Calgary declaration and the consultation process that it creates, to see if there is enough unity in the rest of the country—outside Quebec, that is—so that we can actually say to Quebec with some certainty that this is how we propose to redescribe and reconfigure our relationship with Quebec and, for that matter, reconfigure Confederation; what do you think? Some people may reject it, some people may accept it, but until we are in a position to do that, I think it might be a serious mistake to do what the hon. member has suggested.
I do not quarrel with the principle. I suppose I am asking him to reflect on the timing. Maybe it is just because I have seen this happen before and I am worried that we may repeat the scenario of creating expectations which cannot be met.
Having stated my reservations about what seems to be at the top of the Reform Party agenda, which is an immediate consultation with Quebec, I want to repeat that I doubt the wisdom of it at this time.
I also want to say to the government that it should find a way to meet the concerns of the aboriginal leadership in the country which they expressed not so long ago and which I know have been expressed personally to the minister by Grand Chief Phil Fontaine and to the premiers as recently as last week.
Let us not get into the bind we were in before where because we have agreed on something that we cannot agree to change it. We need to be able to agree to change things or to follow up so that we do not get into the corner we have been in so many times before, unfortunately, where we have not been able to respond appropriately to concerns that have arisen.
Finally, from a social democratic or NDP point of view, we also say to the government though we do not offer a simplistic or economic reductionistic view of unity in this regard, we do however believe that part of building a strong country means addressing the growing social and economic inequalities that exist in this country and which are more pronounced now than they were 20 years ago.
We cannot encourage people to think as citizens, as a community or to think that they are all in the same boat if on the other hand we are pursing policies which increasingly divide and separate people into winners and losers and people who regard themselves as part of a society that no longer cares for them. They cannot bring themselves to care for a society that does not care for them.