—this bill, which creates the Canada customs and revenue agency.
Hon. members should take just a second to imagine what it will mean if we pass this bill—and I cannot imagine in my wildest dreams that the hon. member for Hamilton East would stand up and vote in favour of such a bill. If we pass this bill it will mean that we have no belief in ministerial accountability and no belief in the quality of the Public Service of Canada.
If such a bill is passed, in one fell swoop, without any warning, and in a cavalier, peremptory and grotesque manner, 20% of the Public Service of Canada is eliminated.
I wish to tell all ministers present, and I wish to tell the somewhat left-leaning wing of the Liberal Party personified in the heritage minister, that if they want to show interest in the public service, they ought to call for anti-scab legislation with all their might. If the Liberals want to do something about the public service, what needs to be done is not getting rid of people but addressing the real problems.
If the government wants to legislate labour relations, why does the Minister of Canadian Heritage not rise and congratulate the Bloc Quebecois, which since the early 1990s, when it appeared in the House, when she was on this side and was the Rat Pack incarnate in her vehemence, why does she not rise and congratulate the Bloc for having introduced antiscab legislation very early on? Is this not democratic? Is that not honourable? Is this not an issue the government should raise?
There is a whole lot of legislation we would support as the opposition, but do not ask me or the members of the Bloc to support this centralizing, anti-union, anti-province pile of papers.
I have a challenge to put to our ministers present. I would like the Minister of Canadian Heritage to stop writing and listen. Perhaps she could tell us if there is one province supporting her bill.
I challenge her to rise. We all know her sweet voice that is sometimes cruelly silenced in Oral Question Period. Could she tell us as Minister of Canadian Heritage and to the best of her knowledge—I know she is not responsible for this and has her arms full at the moment—but could she tell us if she can whether one province, her province of Ontario for example, supports this bill? Does her friend Mike Harris support a bill like this?