Mr. Speaker, since it took office on September 1994, the PQ government has spent more than $100 million to try to convince Quebeckers to go along with the concept of Quebec being separate from Canada.
Here are the costs involved: $1 million to hire PQ lobbying firms, unveil the preamble at the Grand Théâtre de Québec and set up telephone lines; $17 million for the Secrétariat à la restructuration, for studies and for regional and national commissions; $10 million in grants to the sovereignty council and for mailouts; $57 million for the expenditures of the Quebec director general of elections; $47 million for the referendum on the Charlottetown accord; and $10 million for the Bélanger-Campeau and other parliamentary commissions.
Today, the PQ government, through acting premier Lucien Bouchard, is planning to spend millions of dollars on the Calgary declaration, although it had sworn not to spend a penny.
If Lucien Bouchard and his PQ colleagues want to know what the real problems facing Quebec society are, they should go to the people and call an immediate election, so that a real premier can be elected by all voters in Quebec.