Nobody knows what it is about. When they find out, I can guarantee you that they will not think much of it. This is a initiative that never got off the ground; nobody talks about it.
People were then asked whether they thought that the Calgary Declaration would solve the problem of national unity. We will now see whether they are as optimistic as our Liberal friends. Only 2% of people thought there was a very strong likelihood that it would solve the problem of national unity; 15% said they thought it was rather likely that it would solve the problem of national unity.
A total of 17% of those polled said that it would perhaps solve the problem and 83% said it would solve nothing. This is very revealing. I could go on. Several questions were asked and the poll results were made public at the time.
There was another question. The members opposite misled us. They kept telling us that Canadians had been consulted, that they would be given an opportunity to express their views, that there were elaborate plans for a cross-country consultation. People were asked whether they had been consulted in any way. “Do you feel like you have been consulted on the Calgary Declaration?” It was a yes or no answer: 4% said yes, 94% said no and 2% did not know. The last two categories add up to a total of 96%.
I must remind members how this consultation process took place. In some instances, it was done at little publicized public meetings. Some of it was done through the Internet. Some of it was done though toll-free lines. It was done in a variety of ways, but every effort was made to keep the consultations secret.
In conclusion, the Calgary Declaration is a constitutional initiative that is going absolutely nowhere. If the government were really serious, it would talk about the fact that, during the summer, the provinces agreed on the social union concept and discussed priorities for the future.
Among other things, they agreed that the federal government should reinvest in our health system as a priority, with a well established mechanism that would require the agreement of a majority of the provinces for an initiative to be put in place. Moreover, if a province has its own program, it should be allowed to opt out. That kind of proposal is much more promising for a government that promotes co-operation.
What is the attitude of this government, starting with the Prime Minister? “If the premiers want to run Canada, they just have to run against me in the next election”. The last one who tried that ended up at the helm of the Liberal Party of Quebec where he is having a lot of problems. That is the tactic they used. It is a message. We have not forgotten and others will not forget either.
Let us tackle serious issues. The government should focus its attention on responding to the provinces' unanimous consensus that it should put more money in our health system, allow them to administer that money, and invest in transfer payments instead of wasting its time on something that will lead nowhere.
People have not heard about it and I presume they do not want to hear about it anyway. This information can be made public, but it will be a total waste of time. However, it will help us find out how much money has been wasted so far on this constitutional circus that is turning out to be a very lucrative industry in Canada.