Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the words of my colleague, who is the chairman of the heritage committee, by the way. He can count on our full co-operation for the speedy passage of Bill C-7.
I also heard messages that are quite self-explanatory. He spoke of successful co-operation between all stakeholders. He stated that this co-operation, and I noted the three words, was “successful, positive, harmonious”. I think that what is interesting in this bill is the basic lesson it is teaching us.
I remember, several years ago, the Government of Quebec wanted to acquire the Mingan Islands, which belonged to a private firm. At that time, Mr. Trudeau, who was Prime Minister of Canada and for whom politics was always “The sky is the limit”, had put $5 million on the table et we lost our bid. On our side, we had the impression that the federal government had just robbed us of a part of our territory that was dear to us, the Mingan Islands.
Quebec is one of the provinces with the least number of national parks managed by Parks Canada, although we do have many things that are managed by Parks Canada, because we are rather protective of our territory. I think that the lesson to be learned from this joint project that we are about to implement is that from the very beginning, the federal government and the Quebec government have respected one another and have also respected each other's jurisdictions under the Constitution.
At no time did the Canadian government attempt to expropriate land, and at no time did the Quebec government attempt to take over an area that is the responsibility of the Canadian government. I believe that this is the basic lesson that we should draw from this project. When there is mutual respect for areas of responsibility, Quebec is capable of working within the framework of existing arrangements.
But if we look back on history, each time that Quebec is rejected for what it is, as a founding nation, that it is rejected for its identity and its culture, or that an attempt is made to invade its areas of responsibility, each time that the federal government goes beyond that limit, that there is a lack of basic respect for areas of responsibility, whatever the reasons for the federal government wanting to take over a provincial area of responsibility, it is always in such a situation that Quebec reels back, jumps on the defensive and adopts a rather adversarial approach.
I would like to ask a question to my colleague. Does he not find important that the lesson we are learning here, or the experiment we are trying with Bill C-7, could be applied also to every area of responsibility, and that the federal government could learn to keep within its own jurisdiction?