Madam Speaker, I thank you for giving me the floor, even though I will not have enough time to finish my 10-minute speech. Still, I want to mention certain principles and parameters on which I will elaborate on Thursday, when we resume this debate.
I remind this House and all our viewers that the Bloc Quebecois is not opposed to health and is not trying to fight a bill which, on the surface, seeks to protect people's health. As we said, we all want to do the right thing. We voted in favour of this bill at first and second reading, but we can no longer support it at report stage, because the government is trying to force solutions on us that do not address the real problems.
What is the problem? The problem is that some people smoke too much and become susceptible to problems such as heart attacks, lung cancer, asthma, etc. This is the problem. The government wants to reduce tobacco use and, to that end, it has decided to eliminate sponsorships. This is like telling someone who eats too much that we will cut his fingers off. Instead of teaching the person not to consume the product that is harmful to his health, we cut that person's fingers off. We are opposed to the solution that the government wants to apply. We have to look at the link between the remedy being proposed and the objective pursued.
I feel the government is trying to administer medication whose side effects have once again not been properly evaluated. It is a good thing to look for measures to restrict and reduce tobacco use, but there are various ways of achieving this. The best one is education.
Unfortunately, I must stop now. I will have good examples to provide on Thursday. I believe I will have at least nine minutes left. Thank you for allowing me to begin my speech.