Mr. Speaker, I was saying that in a civilized society, when a municipality develops an area or a street, or rebuilds infrastructures such as water or sewer pipes that are obsolete, blocked or broken, it is the abutting owners, that is the people living on either side of the street, who pay for such works.
However, the federal government is no ordinary citizen, even though it uses such infrastructures. Take, for example, a federal pier. Piers are huge things, even small ones. If a pier, a airport facility or something similar is located across from a federal lot or on it, there are astronomical costs involved just to go by the government's facilities, but the government refuses to pay.
The government claims that these services are not for its servicing and does not want to contribute. In the bill, the government declines any responsibility regarding the payment of what is normally paid by abutting owners in the case of ports or national airports. As is always the policy with this government, the little guy the one who ends up paying. The little guy is the one who subsidizes the federal government and its facilities. And this is profoundly unfair.
Clearly this government is past master at the art of getting the most disadvantaged to pay. Employment insurance was mentioned earlier. This cannot go on indefinitely. As we say in more colloquial terms, “the government is fouling its own nest”, and in the end, sooner or later, it will pay.
Let us take the example of its cutting its transfers to the provinces, notwithstanding the expected profits, the expected surpluses of $95 billion in the next five years. The government cut transfers to the provinces for health care. In Quebec, we are told that the figures are hard to grasp, but over the past five years. it is something like $7.5 billion or thereabouts. And it is the seniors who are suffering the most as the result of these cuts.
As we know, seniors tend to support the party currently in power. They are hurting themselves and do not seem to realize it. The time for the government to be taking people and seniors for granted because it is the federal government and Liberal to boot is past. It thinks everything is automatic, that seniors will vote for this government. Unfortunately for the government, this is not always true, and these people are beginning to realize that this government, with its policies, is picking on the neediest, and they are often seniors, unfortunately.
Bill C-10—we are not going to quibble about it—is even better than what we used to have, except that the minister should perhaps go back to his drawing board and, in so far as possible, try to eliminate the discretionary power he is being given. We know all about ministerial discretion—wisdom is not always the result when the minister exercises his discretion. The door is often opened to criticism and, even more often, to charges of political scheming.
We are told that our courts are backlogged. It is up to the lawmakers to do everything possible to ensure that laws are as clear as possible, so that challenges are kept to a strict minimum. Eliminating court backlogs and doing their job of drafting policies that are models of clarity, which Bill C-10 unfortunately is not, is how the lawmakers can help society. The Bloc Quebecois is still going to support this bill, however.
The Minister of Public Works' press release put it this way “Modernized Municipal Grants Act Improves Fairness of Federal Payments in Lieu of Taxes”. I would have said the opposite.
The government has to realize that its very presence in a municipality generates costs for the whole community that it is not prepared to assume. Why do the federal government and Her Majesty not behave like good citizens?
It seems to me that their primary concern ought to be projecting the image of a good citizen, one that pays its way in society and gives the municipalities their due. Federal buildings on provincial land also benefit from services, particularly in recent years when the government emblazons every federal building or office with a huge Canadian flag. It is all very well to seek visibility, but the government should, in my opinion, start with paying its dues.
The Bloc Quebecois is probably going to vote for this bill, but we will have questions for the minister when it is referred to a committee.
Mention is made of extensive consultations, but the Union des municipalités du Québec, one of those consulted, complains of the very tight deadline. The bill was introduced barely a week ago, and its full impact cannot be gauged within a few days. Far more time than that is needed.
We ask the minister, when the bill goes to a committee, to show some public spirit and perhaps bring before the committee some amendments to take away the minister's discretionary power, which does not augur well.