Mr. Speaker, I would ask my colleague from the NDP to elaborate on her view of the way the federal government is treating the provinces.
She said in her speech that everybody in this great country should be entitled to food, shelter and clothing, and I believe she is right.
We in Quebec, while we agree, express it differently because we believe it is more meaningful for people. Instead of feeding them we prefer to give them the opportunity to earn what they need to buy food and clothes, and put a roof over their heads.
There is an old Chinese saying I believe goes like this: “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”
What the federal government is doing with its subsidies and its encroachment into fields of provincial jurisdiction is feeding individuals and giving them something for clothing and housing. It is helping them in every area, while provinces would rather educate them and show them how to earn those things and become self-sufficient.
By making the provinces poorer, the federal government can then boast to private citizens: “Look, what the provinces are unable to give you, we are giving to you now. We are putting food on your table.”
But it is a lot more meaningful for people to be able to earn their keep than to have the federal government provide for them and make them dependent on its largesse. Would fishermen in New Brunswick and the other Atlantic provinces and their children not rather have the money to improve their fishing methods than be given subsidies to be able to put food on the table and a roof over their heads?
I would like to hear the member's point of view on this to know if people in the Atlantic provinces and people in Quebec are on the same wavelength.