Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Waterloo—Wellington.
I thank the orators who have already spoken in the debate. It has been fruitful. It does occur of course at a time when some of the issues here may be resolved consensually by a meeting several blocks away of the Prime Minister and the first ministers I have benefited by the discussion by the members of the Bloc. It is good to remind ourselves that the Constitution is more than a discussion of sovereignty in the abstract, that there are larger issues of reform and modernization which can be addressed and to which members of the Bloc opposite can contribute usefully.
I take this opportunity as a diversion for paying compliment to the statement made on behalf of the Bloc two days ago in the debate on the notwithstanding clause by the hon. member for Beauharnois—Salaberry.
When I heard the statement I thought that is a statement I could have written myself. It was a very sensible statement. It was wise. The illogic of it of course was that it pointed not to two negative votes, but somehow in the mysterious ways a vote for one, a vote against the other, I do not think Decartes would have approved of this display of logic. Nevertheless the reasoning is good and it takes us back to the position that federalism is not some frozen system of rules and regulations developed in a bygone century and to be applied immutably to changed social conditions today. Federalism is essentially a very flexible system. It is sometimes forgotten by Canadians, English speaking Canadians perhaps more than others, that the Westminster model which was developed by the British imperial power, which was not noticeably federal at the time it developed it, the theory in practice was developed for its overseas colonies. Look at the problems the English have in encompassing decentralization for Scotland and Wales.
However, the Westminster model is not the only model of federalism. I refer again to the Pepin-Roberts commission, perhaps the most imaginative of the expert commissions of study on our Constitution in the last 50 years. It essentially proclaimed the truth that there are many roads to Rome and there are many different models of federalism. It introduced an interesting notion which did not need an obscure terminology to render it, asymmetrical federalism, simply saying that in any mature federal system the sociological conditions are crucial. We treat equal things equally but unequal things may have a differentiation of constitutional treatment. Why not? It is ordinary common sense.
One of applications of the new approach, a flexible approach of the Pepin-Roberts style to federalism, is the concept of the social union which is being discussed, as least the practical implementation of an abstract concept, by the Prime Minister and the first ministers at this moment. As a term of art it is post-war German federalism. There is nothing wrong with that. The post-war German federal system is what the Americans might have if they had lost the war and had to rebuild their constitution from the ground up. It is very modern federalism but in its very intelligent, pragmatic allocation and transfer of powers between three levels of government it does necessitate, if it is to be applied to Canada, a constitutional amendment.
One of our problems with the patriation package in 1982 was whatever it did in other areas it put the Constitution in a straight-jacket in terms of amendments. It is very hard to amend the Constitution by the front door. This is an admirable feature I think Canadians have developed. This is one part of their English heritage but it is also part of the French heritage because it is also occurred in France, the development by constitutional glosses, custom convention, changes made by practice which last because they are common sense. They are sensible. They respond to new problems and nobody is going to say nay to that.
When we look at the social union in terms of medical payments, partnership and financing medicare, there is so much that can be done by accommodations between governments.
Special arrangements can be made for different regions corresponding to demonstrated special societal facts or special needs. Uniformity is not a sine qua non, and this is where Pepin-Robarts in reminding us of the opting in and opting out facilities and raising the compensation in opting out provided the opportunity if there is a spirit of goodwill and of pragmatic compromise for working out arrangements to accommodate the increasing pluralism in our federal society.
If these arrangements being discussed today do not work out we can assure the House that we will as a national government and uphold our principle that there are national norms in medicare, in medical treatment and in medical research that we will in fulfilment of our mandate and our duty to the country seek to effectuate within our power. But there is nothing to prevent administrative devolution in the spirit of co-operative federalism. The message from the Prime Minister is that we would like to work with you.
Co-operative federalism, Lester Pearson style social union and the new trendy word of today, borrowed as I say somewhat inexactly from West German federalism, these are all ways of achieving socially useful results within an accommodatingly flexible federal system. The principle of subsidiarity, the notion from the European Union that each level of government should be allowed to do what it does best in terms of a functional reallocation of powers on a basis of co-operative federalism and customary adjustment of the constitution, it is all there.
We wish the Prime Minister and the first ministers every success in their efforts. If they do not succeed we will do our duty as the federal government to the Canadian people to deliver on a 21st century medical insurance system properly financed. We want the co-operation of the provincial governments. We welcome the element of pragmatism I saw in the Bloc motion, the Bloc attitude two days ago on the notwithstanding clause. I wish its logic could have been more in the Cartesian sense and the two votes would have been identical in terms of its party, but the progress is there.
This has been a good debate. It has been intelligent. There is the going backwards and forwards in terms of the give and take that is the essential of any mature federal system.