Mr. Speaker, first of all, we must excuse the members who may have been a little bit too loud during the good speech made by my colleague from Quebec. Maybe it was because they found that speech most inspiring. We know how it is to work in this House. Sometimes members do get carried away.
I would like to add my voice to that of my colleague from Quebec who concluded her speech by reminding everyone that, since it came to this House, the Bloc Quebecois has worked to help Canada move forward. It has worked to send the message that duplication must be avoided.
My colleague from Quebec mentioned that we worked hard in the area of manpower training. We were the first provincial government—I say we because I come from Quebec and I have a lot of sympathy and affection for the Quebec government, the Parti Quebecois government. It was a sovereignist government in Quebec that succeeded in concluding a historic agreement with the federal government to harmonize the collection of the GST, the infamous tax that forced the former deputy prime minister to seek re-election.
I say all that because the new Liberal leader in Quebec, Mr. Jean Charest, is claiming that Quebec would be better protected and would be able to reach all kinds of agreements if he were at the helm. There are still three areas where it is the Bloc Quebecois in Ottawa that helped things move forward, which allowed for a certain degree of harmonization.
Let us come back to the bill before us, Bill C-43, which creates a super agency that will allow Revenue Canada and customs services, whose staff represents about 20% of the entire Canadian public service, not to be governed by the rules of the public service.
When I reread the bill, when I try to understand what it is all about, I see that this is one of its only functions, one of the only things that this agency will achieve, besides being able to create cozy, well paid jobs, to which the minister will be able to appoint friends of the government, of the members opposite.
It is interesting that each time the government tries to hide or to avoid answering questions from the public, it creates a commission, a super agency. This happens frequently right now.
When it does not want to answer questions from people who want to express themselves publicly—which is the right to free speech—I am talking about the infamous “peppergate”, what happens? It refers the issue to a commission. Yes, we are told the commission has been in existence for a long time, at least 10 years. However, it forgets to give some tools to people who must use this commission to get information. It forgets to give them some tools, for example, lawyers who also are well paid to defend them.
I say well paid. I will not argue about the definition of well paid or about who should be and who should not. I am in favour of people being paid for the fair value of their work. The government should at least give these students the means to defend themselves against the big machine.
A small group of students were sprayed with pepper, while the minister is trying to estaablish—