Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member's comments with interest.
I am surprised that someone did not jump up to make note that the pants of the member for Medicine Hat were in flames as a result of some of the whoppers he delivered to the House. Interestingly enough I found the same kind of attitude coming from the Reform Party again in the comments of the member who just spoke.
The member talked about immigration. She talked about numbers, here is how much per capita in Quebec, here is how much per capita in another province and then just asked the rhetorical question is that fair.
The duty of members of parliament is not simply to raise spectres but to convince the House and others that they have done their homework and that they have made sufficient inquiry so that any obvious reasons for differentials would be taken into account. They are not to raise those spectres and somehow leave everyone hanging as to why, what reasonable explanation could there be.
The member knows that the legislation before the House is renewing the equalization program for another five years and that the basic elements of the program have been reaffirmed by two years of consultations with all of the provinces and the federal government. Does the member know better than each and every one of the provincial representatives at the table discussing the elements of our equalization program? The important element here is that this member has only raised to the House questions which she has not attempted to answer herself.
If the member would look, for instance, at the whole area where she was Quebec bashing and was against the whole issue of bilingualism and the importance of our official languages in Canada. She did not even inquire whether or not the cost of providing services ostensibly in both official languages in that province had a significant amount to do with that and furthermore, that providing those support services with regard to immigration was also to provide support to the rest of the provinces which also have an obligation to provide those services in one of the two official languages on the basis of need.
There is something going on here which the member did not give credit for. The member did not explain it and did not attempt to explain it. Not only that, the member did not attempt to inquire. All she wanted to do was to raise spectres about inadequacies which she believes are there. Each and every premier and the federal government do not agree. The member should explain herself.