It would be worth less than 50 cents.
How much energy and money is expended by this government in an ongoing battle against its own constitution? When it gets involved in health and the municipalities, it is directly interfering in areas of provincial jurisdiction. When it comes in with the millennium scholarships, it is interfering with education.
Who are the losers with the millennium scholarships? The younger generation, the students, who will find themselves dealing with two systems—once again, duplication in Quebec—and will lose financially. While the federal government doggedly insists on not respecting Quebec's jurisdiction over education, who is it that loses out? The young people.
There is a shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars. Everything possible has been done to get negotiations under way again, but on an equal footing, not between the president of Bell Canada and the new Minister of Education, but between the Minister of Human Resources Development and the Minister of Education. This government is trying to shirk its responsibilities by delegating a representative of a private company. Let us get serious, now.
Getting back to employment insurance, I would like to repeat to this government the essential demands of the Bloc Quebecois. The employment insurance fund must no longer be used as a tax on employment. The way it is operating, employment insurance has become an indirect tax, a tax that is taken from the pockets of the unemployed and from employers, and one that has no positive benefits for them.
Let us consider the following example. A person has insurance for his car. He is told “If you have an accident at Drummondville, you will be covered, but if it is at Lac-Saint-Jean, you will not”. The EI system is as ridiculous as that.
In the Quebec City region, crossing the river changes the EI rate. The result of this is that no one gets the same amount, no one is entitled to the same number of weeks of employment insurance. Where is the fairness and justice in such a system?
What is more, administration of the employment insurance account needs to be depoliticized. If the federal government has a hard time grasping common sense, it need only give this responsibility to employers and workers. We have introduced a private member's bill on this issue. Here again, the four parties on this side of the House have approved this approach, but, on the other side, nothing is happening.
I would now like to discuss the second point of my speech, which concerns health, or, if members want to put in that way, the initial ravages of the social union. The cuts are in the amount of $33 billion rather than $42 billion. The budget announced an additional $11.5 billion in transfers over five years, which means $2 billion in 1999-00 and $9 billion until 2003-04.
Furthermore, the government also announced an additional $1.4 billion in new health care spending, which tramples on and overlaps provincial jurisdictions. The $2 billion announced for all of Canada represents only just the amount that was cut for Quebec alone in health care. It is a third of the $6.3 billion shortfall the federal government announced last month.
Let us talk figures. They are the experts in this on the other side of the House. They are also experts in having a hard time recognizing the real things.
The initial plan for cuts represented a cumulative shortfall of $48 billion between 1993-94 and 2002-03. The announcement in the 1997 election was a little election treat. They are good at that. I will discuss later the little election treats in rural development and where the money goes. You will see that, in patronage, these folks are hard to beat.
During the 1997 election campaign, the Liberals announced an increase of $12.5 billion and said the cumulative cut would be only be $42 billion. This is not what I call a treat.
Let us now turn our attention to the recent social union framework agreement. This was a great blackmail operation conducted in the Prime Minister's office, along with provinces that will soon hold an election, except one. It is very easy to understand why Ontario received $1 billion. That province is well represented in this House.
I can understand why the province of Ontario would be favoured, but I have a hard time figuring out why Liberal members from Quebec would be so gullible. What is going on in that caucus? They are asleep. Quebec MPs fall bow down to Ontario and guess who loses? Quebec. Ontario receives $1 billion, while Quebec gets $150 million. Is this justice? Is this a worthwhile social union?
I can certainly understand why the Premier of Quebec, Lucien Bouchard, dismissed the agreement that was proposed to first ministers. It is impossible to understand why this government is always trying to interfere in areas of provincial jurisdiction.
I will now give the long list of future federal intrusions in health.