Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to respond on behalf of the government to the motion tabled by the hon. member for Nanaimo—Cowichan.
This motion highlights the differing viewpoints between the government and the hon. member with respect to national unity. As was clearly indicated in the Speech from the Throne, the government has made this issue its top priority for its current mandate. We want to proceed with national reconciliation. We believe the Calgary declaration is an important step in that direction.
The nine premiers would not support the spirit of the hon. member's motion either. Even though the results of the consultations they will be holding with their respective populations are not yet in, it already appears that the majority of Canadians support the major principles of the Calgary declaration.
The first part of the motion the member is asking us to consider concerns equality among provinces and Canadians in general. I would reassure my colleague that equality is a principle shared by all Canadians and supported fully by the our government. The first two clauses of the Calgary declaration are devoted to it.
The principle of equality is at the heart of our identity. It is a bulwark of our culture and our identity as Canadians. It is the very essence of our democratic system. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms clearly recognizes it in section 15, which guarantees equality of Canadians before the law. In this regard, clause 1 of the Calgary declaration provides that all Canadians are equal and that their rights are protected by law.
We are also in agreement with respect to the equality status of the provinces. There are not two or three types of status for provinces. In the Canadian federation, provinces have equal status. All provinces can exercise the same powers. I would remind my colleague from Nanaimo—Cowichan of what clause 2 of the Calgary declaration has to say on the matter. “ All provinces, while diverse in their characteristics, have equal status”.
Nevertheless some provinces may show more of a desire than others to exercise some of these powers. In fact, over the years, some provinces have used certain powers while others have chosen not to do so. For example, all provinces have the power to administer the collection of individual income tax, but only Quebec does so and has the necessary personnel and infrastructure.
In 1965 all provinces had the right to opt out of certain national established programs and receive appropriate compensation, including tax points. Only Quebec chose to do so, which is why the federal tax rate is lower in Quebec than in the other provinces.
Only Quebec has exercised its constitutional right to set up its own pension plan. The other provinces are covered by the Canada pension plan.
Those powers that Quebec has exercised have always been available to the other provinces. That the Government of Quebec has exercised them while others have chosen not to does not confer special status on the province. That is why clause 6 of the Calgary declaration stipulates that if any future constitutional amendment confers powers on one province, those powers would have to be available to all provinces. Thus equality does not mean uniformity, nor does equality of treatment mean uniformity of treatment.
Let us consider an example that concerns the province of the hon. member for Nanaimo—Cowichan. When the government works with the Government of British Columbia to support Pacific salmon fishers, that does not give the province an additional right in comparison with other provinces. Rather, it means that only British Columbia has a Pacific salmon fishery.
That same flexible approach also applies to tax breaks for Alberta for oil sands development, and yet these two examples do not make our fellow citizens in Alberta or British Columbia Canadians plus.
Neither case involves special privileges, but rather different contexts. Governments must recognize that all provinces and all citizens are equal, but must also respond to a variety of needs and circumstances. The flexibility of the Canadian federation is thus expressed, by accommodating differences without compromising the principle of equality.
I would even add that each province can occupy all of its space within the federation in its full specificity and Canada is the richer for it.
Equalization is another example. Under that program the federal government makes payments to some provinces but not to others. That does not mean that inequalities are being created among the provinces. Rather it means that all citizens have access to comparable services, no matter what region they live in.
The essential difference between our party's view and my colleague's motion is that for him equality seems to mean uniformity, whereas we believe that these two concepts do not necessarily mean the same thing. To impose uniformity of treatment in a country such as ours is to deny one of its greatest treasures, its diversity. That will never be the policy of the Liberal Party of Canada.
My colleague maintains that recognizing the specificity of a province in the Constitution would run counter to the principle of equality of provinces and citizens. As I have already stated, we all agree with the principle of equality among citizens and provinces. The government, however, rejects the one size fits all approach. That is why we support recognizing the unique character of Quebec as proposed in the declaration of the nine premiers.
The Calgary declaration defines the unique character of Quebec society in terms of its French speaking majority, its culture and its tradition of civil law. That definition reminds us that Quebec is different from the other provinces in many ways, one characteristic being that it contains within its territory the only French speaking majority on the North American continent.
I would remind my colleague that although the expression “unique character” has only recently entered the political vocabulary, all of our constitutional laws have contained implicit recognition of the distinct character of Quebec's identity from the Quebec Act of 1774 to the Constitution Act of 1982, including the Constitutional Act of 1791 and the Constitution Act of 1867.
In fact the Constitution Act of 1867 recognized Quebec's special legal system and even then contained provisions regarding bilingualism and the appointment of supreme court justices.
I would add that the constitutional recognition of the unique character of Quebec would merely formalize an existing practice in the courts, an opinion that is shared by the former chief justice of the supreme court, the Right Hon. Brian Dickson.
The unique character of Quebec society is an obvious observation which is taken into account in current practice. So how would recognizing it jeopardize the equality of citizens and provinces? Simply put, in no way.
The Calgary declaration is not a constitutional amendment. It is a statement of principles. However if recognition of the unique character of Quebec society were to be entrenched in the Constitution, that recognition would be framed as an interpretive clause like the current section 27 of the charter of rights which recognizes the multicultural character of Canada's heritage. Fifteen years after the charter was adopted, can any Canadian say that his or her rights have been threatened by that clause?
In addition to honouring the universal principle of equality, such recognition will serve the unity of the country well. As I have already said, our government made national unity its top priority in this term of office. And whatever helps the cause will receive our support.
This is why we support the Calgary declaration. We recognize that it is a positive step by proposing a framework for discussions that reflect Canadian realities and values.
I would like to finish with a quote that Canadians believe, as Alberta's premier Ralph Klein has said, in a Canada where all provinces have equal status, but a Canada that allows Quebec to protect those things that make it such a unique part of our national character, a tolerant and diverse nation where we are all equal as Canadians no matter where we live but where the word equality is not used as a blanket to smother diversity. I believe that is what Canadians believe.