Mr. Speaker, time has a way of arranging things.
When the Bloc Quebecois formed the official opposition, its members were making the same comments that Reformers are now making. We said the same things in 1997.
Reformers are talking about overlap, duplication and federal intrusion in provincial jurisdictions. That is what the Bloc Quebecois was condemning, and continues to condemn.
The problem is that the federal government is making increasingly deeper cuts in transfer payments to the provinces, while intruding in areas of provincial jurisdiction such as health and education with the millennium scholarships. When the federal government intrudes in our jurisdictions, this adversely affects regional development.
The Bloc Quebecois has been condemning such intrusions since 1993. Could it be that Rodrigue Biron influenced the Reform Party during the united alternative convention? Is the Reform Party motion the result of the convention to establish a new united alternative party?