Madam Speaker, the hon. member opposite demonstrated the federal government's inability to understand the problems confronting the provinces when he spoke of partnership. But what kind of partnership is there in the millennium scholarship fund? The federal government plans to consult the provinces after the millennium foundation has been established. In a partnership, people sit down with their partners and discuss the best ways of dealing with problems.
He mentioned as another example the fact that zero deficit has already been achieved in some provinces; therefore, the measures put forward by the federal government will help all the provinces. This is not exactly the case in Quebec and Ontario. These are the only two provinces that do not have a balanced budget as of yet. Their circumstances being different, it is normal that their priorities and the solutions contemplated are different.
Perhaps students in Quebec will not say no to millennium scholarships. But when the hon. member describes the suicide rate in Quebec as one of the highest, does he think that the introduction of these scholarships will result in fewer students dropping out and fewer suicides in Quebec? Whether or not there are millennium scholarships has nothing to do with the dropout rate. We already have a loans and grants program in Quebec.
The cause lies elsewhere. That is why Quebec asked the federal government for compensation to help it address problems identified in education, problems like children who have nothing to eat before leaving for school in the morning or children without appropriate supervision who are suicidal or those who need psychological treatment that cannot be subsidized because of the cuts in transfer payments. That is what partnership is about, when one understands what it means.