Mr. Speaker, those are two issues which do not dominate the discussions out in the area where I live. The linguistic issues we deal with are somewhat different than the ones we deal with in parliament, but nonetheless I am happy to talk about them.
In my area the linguistic issues are how many people who speak Punjabi do we need in our local hospitals? That is a linguistic issue from Abbotsford. How can we provide services to the couple hundred thousand unilingual Chinese immigrants in the lower mainland? That is a linguistic issue in the lower mainland. When we talk about linguistic issues on the west coast it is a far different issue than it is here. The issues that dominate the national media so to speak do not dominate our local issues at all. They are just not commonly talked about.
I take it the member is talking specifically about the use of French and English, the two dominant languages in Canada and the role of the federal government in protecting minority rights. The Reform Party has always said that the federal government does have a role in the protection of rights of individuals but not in the promotion of the culture or language in a particular province.
For example, in the province of Quebec where the member comes from the role of the federal government under a Reform government would not be to promote the French language or culture. We think it is a dynamic language and culture and it is a great thing for Canada and for Quebec. However, the promotion of culture and language is a role of the provincial government.
The role of the federal government is restricted to the protection of minority rights. In other words if someone is using the heavy hand to steamroll over a minority right wherever it might be in the country, then the federal government does have a role to step in.
The promotion of language and culture is a provincial responsibility. There should not be an item in the federal government that says it is going to spend X amount of dollars promoting culture in any of the provinces. It just will not happen. That is a job which should be left with the provinces and we are not going to interfere in that.
It gives the provinces the assurance that the money they spend and the efforts they make are going to be directed as they see fit. It means that people in all regions of the country are not going to have a policy that often makes no sense at all in the lower mainland of British Columbia be the same policy as that in Chicoutimi. It just does not mesh. One policy does not fit all.
In British Columbia, at least, I can say that the current government policy is a real puzzle which says that it is the one size fits all national policy on culture and language. In the lower mainland they just look at one another and say “Where are these people coming from?” It just does not make a lick of sense. We have all kinds of linguistic problems, but also linguistic opportunities because of the cultural diversity that we have in the lower mainland. We take advantage of that. We have a window on the world because of the diversity in the lower mainland.
The Official Languages Act, for example, is so irrelevant in the lower mainland that people really do not even know what it is that anybody could even be conceivably talking about. They just do not understand how that policy is relevant in the lower mainland, and it is not relevant.
There are some separatists in Quebec who are hopeless to deal with. They want to leave Canada for every real and imagined problem. They just say “Everything is hopeless. Nobody loves me. I'm going out to the garden to eat worms”. That is their response to everything.
There are, however, other people in Quebec who over the last 20 years have said “I am not really a separatist, but I am so frustrated with a federal government that says this is the way it has to be”. This is federal-provincial jurisdiction, and so on, and nothing can change. It has to remain so forever. Many of those people say “Is there any other option but separatism?” We say to those people “Yes, there is. There is a troisième voie. There is a third vision, an option, that is not separatism, but it is not the status quo either. It is something better, but different than what we have now”. Those are the kinds of people we want to talk to. Those who say “We are going to leave because we don't want to talk to anybody. We are not going to debate. We are never going to argue”, we cannot talk to them because their minds are made up.