Mr. Speaker, the member from the Bloc Quebecois commented on a number of issues but concentrated substantially on the jurisdictional role in education and specifically on where the Canadian millennium scholarship foundation fits in.
I believe the member was in error on one aspect which I would like to lay out for him. As he knows, now that we have turned the corner and balanced the budget, education was an important theme. The Canadian opportunities strategy was the prime theme in terms of directing funding toward the education of Canadians.
The member will also know that the Canadian millennium scholarship fund is the centrepiece of the Canadian opportunities strategy. It is designed to create new opportunities for Canadians by expanding access, knowledge and skills for the jobs they need and a higher standard of living for Canadians as a whole.
The area with which he dealt and in which I believe he was in error was the concept of eligibility for merit.
The Canadian millennium scholarship is intended to remove barriers for low and middle income Canadians. It is intended to get the post-secondary education or advanced technical training they need. The issues here are directed to low and middle incomes and accessibility.
Beginning in the year 2000 the scholarships will be awarded to over 100,000 full and part time students each year over 10 years, with the initial endowment of $2.5 billion. This is the single largest investment ever made by the federal government in support of access to education. We are speaking conceptually of the principle of access.
There is no question the provinces are responsible for the delivery of the post-secondary system. When it comes down to who was unemployed, youth unemployment and general poverty, it is the federal government that cannot stand back and leave it up to the provinces to be fully responsible. The federal government must play a role in ensuring Canadians have accessibility to education and an opportunity to have jobs.
If the member is so insistent that the funding is necessary for the school system in Quebec, could he explain to the House why the Quebec provincial government is spending millions of dollars annually on embassies abroad?