Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to the parliamentary secretary defend two of the principles in the Calgary declaration. I cannot help thinking that many Quebeckers have already noticed that the notion of distinct society has lost its value after being ruled out through the rejection of the Meech Lake accord by Canadian public opinion, contrary to the claim of the member for Lac-Saint-Louis, who wanted to assign blame for the rejection of the accord to a number of individuals and institutions.
The notion was also rejected by Quebeckers and Canadians in their refusal to permit the government to amend the Constitution according to the provisions of the Charlottetown accord.
The notion of distinct society is therefore of little interest now, and it is to be replaced with a notion even less interesting in terms of its content and scope, because it will not be included in the Constitution and given interpretive effect.
I really doubt therefore that Quebeckers will accept this notion of unique character, especially since it is not accompanied by a reform in the distribution of powers as Quebeckers wanted. Recognizing Quebec only symbolically as a distinct society or a society with a unique character will never satisfy the longstanding claim.
I would therefore ask the parliamentary secretary whether, in his opinion, it is not necessary now to propose a major reform of the distribution of powers for constitutional reform to satisfy Quebeckers.