Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the remarks made by my hon. colleague in praise of the last budget.
Can he acknowledge the fact that, in Quebec alone, the cuts made in transfer payments to the provinces and in employment insurance have resulted in the number of welfare recipients increasing by 200,000? According to a recent study by Montreal economist Fortin, there are now 730,000 more Canadians on welfare. This is not necessarily good news.
My colleague also talked about how great the millennium scholarships were, saying “Ask any student in Canada; they'll tell you how great the Prime Minister's scholarships are”.
Perhaps my hon. colleague could ask Nicholas Ducharme, the president of the Quebec students' association, who views these millennium scholarships as an ego trip on the part of the Prime Minister, in the sense that they constitute a monument to his political career.
After all the cuts made in health and education, if it really cared about the student debt load, this government might have given this money directly to the students and right away, not two or three years down the road and without creating yet another administrative structure, as suggested by Mr. Ducharme, this student who is the president of the Quebec student's association. Indeed, he suggested that the federal government should give the money immediately to the students through the existing grants and loans system, which is excellent in Quebec.
I would like to know if my hon. colleague thinks that the increase in the number of people living on welfare in Canada is a good thing and that introducing these millennium scholarships is really an ego trip on the part of the Prime Minister.