Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to take part in this debate on the budget. I will direct my remarks primarily at the millennium scholarships which, while little has been said, are evidence of the federal government's wish to change the rules of the game and shift the focus of decision making from the provinces to Ottawa in the next century.
We would enter a new era in Canada, and the millennium scholarships are a very good example, where centralization will be complete and Canada will behave like a unitary country, where provincial governments will increasingly be viewed as regional governments, thus flouting the Canadian Constitution, which gives the provinces very specific jurisdictions.
This is a direct attack on the whole issue of Quebec, because we are a people, not just a province, although a province is all we are considered to be right now. The debate is not over, because these issues are fundamental to the development of our societies.
As for the millennium scholarships, some context is required. The federal government wants to set up a special $2.5 billion fund, that would provide for approximately 100,000 scholarships averaging $3,000 over a ten-year period beginning, as it happens, two years from now. There are a number of criteria for awarding these scholarships, notably merit and mobility.
What people need to know is that, as this fund is being contemplated, tuition fees in Quebec are approximately $1,700, while they are about $3,200, or almost twice that amount, in Canada. In Quebec, student indebtedness stands at an average of $11,000, while it is $22,000 in the rest of Canada.
It must also be realized that, from 1993 to 2003, according to the federal government's budget, transfers to the provinces for education will have been reduced by $10 billion, including $3 billion for Quebec alone. These cuts have already greatly increased the debt load of students in Quebec and in Canada and of post-secondary institutions.
Just this morning I read in the paper that the CEGEP of Trois-Rivières is calling for help, because it is at the end of its rope. Who is listening? The MNA for Trois-Rivières, a Quebec minister, and not the federal government, which does not care and keeps making cuts at the expense of the provinces.
There are cries for help in my riding because the federal cuts have made it impossible to provide the services college students used to get. It is almost indecent on the part of the federal government to take cover in this fashion, while all the pressure is on the Quebec government, considering that federal measures contributed to the problems we are now facing.
We already have the Canada student loan program, but the federal government is adding the millennium scholarship fund, which will be based on merit. Quebec is being denied the right to opt out of that initiative, contrary to what was agreed in 1964 between the Lesage and Pearson governments, when the Canada student loan program was established. This right to opt out of the millennium scholarship fund is being denied to the people of Quebec. This is unacceptable. If the federal government respected the letter and the spirit of the Canadian Constitution, it would promptly congratulate Quebec on its good management of this provincial jurisdiction—the loans, grants and financial assistance sector—and automatically give Quebec the amount it expected to spend in that province through its millennium fund.
The underlying philosophy of the two programs is totally different. The millennium scholarship fund is based on merit, while the Quebec loans and grants program is based on the desire of students to pursue their education. Quebec then provides support to the students, based on their material and financial needs.
The Canadian scholarships, on the other hand, are going to be awarded according to merit, a pernicious notion contrary to the philosophy of the Quebec government loan and bursary program. So we will, obviously, end up with still more federal-provincial quarrels, stirred up by the Canadian government's trampling over the field of education because it is shaping the Canada of tomorrow, which involves all of the people of Quebec.
The Canada of tomorrow will have Quebec as a region, no longer a provincial government, and this will be the result of a decision made here in the Langevin Block with no consultation, particularly not with Quebec.
Speaking of debt, I would like to refer you to the words of Martin Roy, student association president at UQTR, the Université du Québec campus in my riding of Trois-Rivières. On February 5, when he learned of the federal government's plans relating to students in need, he said:
The needs are increasing every year. So far in 1997-98, UQTR's financial aid office has already handed out close to $400,000 in emergency funds to this clientele. They are increasingly in need of financial assistance to meet their basic needs for survival, not merit scholarships to finish their studies. At UQTR alone, these merit scholarships total close to $1.8 million.
Those merit scholarships, moreover, come from the private sector. Speaking of the private sector, a kind of near-privatization is taking place. This $2.5 billion is being entrusted to a foundation to be directed by none other than Yves Landry.
Six months ago, on October 22, 1997, in a speech to our Chamber of Commerce in Trois-Rivières, Yves Landry, who was not aware, I think, of the federal government's plans, said, and I quote:
—there was an urgent need to leave behind the old-style politicking slowly destroying us in Canada and to allow the provinces more power. It is suggested that the federal government give them authority in their respective fields of jurisdiction.
I do not understand Mr. Landry. He was either misinformed or conned. Nothing is impossible with these people. He was either misinformed or conned. Given Mr. Landry's views, I cannot understand why he agreed to serve as president of this foundation, which is completely at cross-purposes, because we never asked the federal government to look after this kind of scholarship.
In conclusion, I would like to read some passages from a remarkable and extremely perceptive article by Lysiane Gagnon that appeared on February 26. Mrs. Gagnon is known for views that are not normally very favourable to us. The article is entitled “A demagogic and provocative project”, and I quote:
Future generations will find no better illustration of the reign of Jean Chrétien than these millennium scholarships: the perfect example of a superficial and demagogic policy, of window dressing that does nothing at all about the real problems and that may even create a few new ones.
These scholarships will swallow up money that should have been put towards improving the school system, and they will contribute to the further deterioration of relations, if they can possible get any worse, between Quebec City and Ottawa.
Further on, she says:
The decent thing—would have been to substantially increase provincial transfer payments, now that Ottawa has put its fiscal house in order. This would not have been a question of generosity, but rather repayment of a blatant debt. But there was the vanity of Jean Chrétien, who wants his name associated with some sort of government handout, not to mention the deep-seated need of any government for maximum visibility. A direct gift to taxpayers brings in more votes than turning money over to the provinces.
And further on:
If the Liberal Prime Minister was even remotely sincere in his wish to stimulate education, he would have provided assistance to schools, through the responsible governments. But obviously, when it comes to votes, it is more productive to distribute maple-leaf bearing cheques to post-secondary students—all the more so because they, unlike primary school students, have the right to vote.
The millennium scholarships will be grafted, God knows how, onto an already existing grant system. Either they will based on different criteria, and this will thwart provincial policies, or they will be based on the same criteria used for existing scholarships, and this will be a patent case of duplication of services.
With that, I conclude my remarks. I would like to thank those who helped with the pre-budget study in my riding and, on budget night, with the study of the finance minister's budget. Rapidly, they are: Michel Dupont, of the FTQ; Michel Angers, of the CSN; Yves St-Pierre, of Action-Chômage; Jean-Louis Lavoie, of the Mauricie St-Jean-Baptiste society; François Brunette, of the AQDR; Martin Roy, of the UQTR students' association; and Brian Barton, of the Trois-Rivières Solidarité populaire.