Mr. Speaker, this takes some nerve. By the year 2002, the federal government will have cut $10 billion from post-secondary education, and the Prime Minister is telling us about a new program that is being condemned not only by the Quebec government, but also by the Quebec Liberal Party, the students, the teachers and the deans of universities. These people are unanimous in saying that the new program does not meet Quebec's needs.
Given this new consensus in Quebec, why is the Prime Minister stubbornly refusing, in the face of all logic, to give Quebec the right to completely withdraw from the program, with full compensation, as provided in the agreements signed with Jean Lesage, back in the sixties?