Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have my turn to address Bill C-71, which relates to certain provisions in the budget tabled in the House on February 16.
A budget can be labelled either good or bad, and this is, I believe, a bad one, because it contains some bad provisions. It can also be looked at according to what it should contain but does not.
As the member representing Lévis-et-Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, I can be excused for speaking of a matter of great importance to my riding, the Lévis shipyard, and for pointing out that this budget contains no additional measures relating to shipbuilding.
After a number of questions from us, mobilization of the unions and demands from the shipbuilding association, the Minister of Industry still maintains that there is, in his opinion, no need for additional measures.
But what is it that the industry is calling for? Not subsidies but tax measures, a loan guarantee program, consideration of leasing as a tax compensation, as other major industries are treated, including railways and especially aerospace.
In this budget, there is also a very glaring lack of new measures to create employment and to help small and medium businesses, although these are the main creators of jobs in the country.
In addition to not creating employment, this budget adds nothing to compensate for the cuts experienced by the regions, particularly those affected by seasonal unemployment. Obviously, each riding has faced cuts in this regard. In my riding, the cuts to benefits amounted to $20 million or $21 million a year. That had an impact on the economy. In certain ridings, however, in the more remote regions, which have seasonal unemployment, it was even worse.
We would expect that the government would set aside additional funds for these regions. Instead of doing that, it cut more than $100 million in the budgets for regional development, in the west, the maritimes and Quebec. It cut $27 million in Quebec in regional development. Real sensitivity.
Yesterday, I spoke in the House on the motion by the member for North Vancouver on western alienation over the money that comes from Ottawa, or the way this money is managed for the west. I not only mentioned the amounts allocated to regional development in Quebec—because I am most familiar with this—but I also noted certain anomalies.
For example, the figures I had for the first six months of 1998 indicated to me that the riding of Westmount—Ville-Marie in Quebec received the most money for regional development, an amount that is usually given for regions far from the major centres. The riding of Westmount—Ville-Marie is represented by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.
I note that in this period, the ridings represented by the Liberal members had, oddly enough, budgets 50% higher than those of other ridings in Quebec, regardless of whether they were represented by Conservatives or members of the Bloc Quebecois. That was fairly distressing.
In addition, there were cuts to employment insurance that permitted the creation of an employment insurance fund. If it were an independent fund, it would soon be worth $20 billion. That is a lot of money.
What takes the cake is to see the Minister of Finance use this surplus to solve his deficit problems, pay back part of the debt and use new money to intrude in provincial programs and jurisdictions, especially since the social union agreement reached with nine provinces.
In exchange for money, nine premiers out of ten gave up their claims and told the federal government “these are not your jurisdictions, but give us money”. Quebec did not sign that agreement.
The cuts that this government decided to make to the transfers to the provinces between 1994 and 2003 are of the order of $33 billion. This is not peanuts. But now the federal government has decided to put money back in the health sector, to the tune of $1 billion in Ontario and $150 million in Quebec. Ottawa also gave a cheque of $1.4 billion under the equalization program, but let us not forget that this same Liberal government cut $6 billion in the transfer programs for health, education and social assistance. To give back $1.4 billion after making cuts of $6 billion is not fair.
The hon. member for Terrebonne—Blainville spoke about something I wanted to mention regarding equalization and tax points. Since I do not have much time, I will not repeat the examples he gave, but I will say that this is not necessarily linked to the transfer payments, as a number of economists have shown. These are pre-established formulas and the Liberals have nothing to do with them. They were established through agreements a long time ago.
It is exasperating for Quebec to see that it is not getting funds through productive expenditures in the area of research and development, and the procurement of goods and services. I could start a war of numbers regarding taxation and equalization payments, as the federal and Quebec governments did.
Quebec commentators and those who know history will recall that, at first after Confederation, the federal government did not tax individuals directly, the provinces did. The federal government went about it indirectly through excise taxes and customs duties. This is how it raised money.
As provided in the Constitution in cases of emergency and for the sake of public order, during both world wars, the federal government asked the provinces if it could tax Canadians directly through personal income taxes. This was to finance the war, but once it had a taste of it, it got used to it and never went back.
It had reached an agreement with every province, except Ontario and Quebec, in order to continue taxing Canadians directly. Eight existing provinces had agreed. Ontario, which was reluctant, finally came on board after it was offered a very advantageous auto pact. Quebec found itself isolated, and since that time we have been the only province where individual taxpayers must file two returns, contradictory returns with provisions that sometimes cancel each other out.
During a referendum on sovereignty, we will have to make it very clear to people how urgent it is to repatriate all our taxes to Quebec so that we can spend according to our own priorities. Quebec has a distinct culture, and we do business in a distinct manner. The Civil Code is distinct. In every field we see, feel and act differently.
I conclude with the hope of being asked a few questions.