Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise to speak today. This sadness hangs over the opposition members.
This government's management style is unacceptable. Since my election in 1997, the Bloc Quebecois and all the opposition parties have faced closure on many occasions.
What is closure? This government uses it to muzzle the opposition. Why muzzle the opposition? Because the government is not capable of legislating in a way consistent with the reality of Quebeckers and Canadians.
I come from an extremely proud and a highly industrialized community. There are also many many public service employees in the riding of Jonquière.
There is a tax data centre there. What did they do recently to the Department of National Revenue? They set up another agency. I think they are trying to see how many agencies they can set up. Why is this government doing that? Because they have a whole lot of friends to thank.
I have always been in active politics. Elected the member for Jonquière, I was not expecting to be part of a circus here in the House. What is this government doing? Taking care of all its friends. Why must these people be compensated? Because the government has nothing to give the people. It has to look after its friends first of all.
What is going on right now with Bill C-78 is unacceptable. The government is doing the same thing it did with the EI fund. Too much is not enough, as they say, and so is too little. This government has no common sense.
On weekends I visit my riding. People say to me: “Jocelyne, are you going to tell the government that there is such a thing as common sense? If they do not know what it is, then they should pay us a visit, talk to people in factories. We will show them a thing or two”.
They did not go to the same school as we did. They went to schools that taught them to reward their cronies, their friends.
What is going on is not fair to women, as my colleague, the member for Louis-Hébert, pointed out. Three quarters of the employees at the taxation data centre in my riding are women. They are constantly coming to see me to complain about how the President of the Treasury Board has insulted them yet again. They are insulted by his unwillingness to recognized pay equity.
Not only does the government not recognize pay equity, but it is dipping into the pension fund. In most cases, these women have sacrificed their health.
For many years now, the government has resorted to cutbacks in the public service in order to reduce the deficit. Where there used to be three or four women doing a job in the taxation centre, now there is only one. The workload has increased. Now the government is actually going to dip into their pension fund, when it is known that most of these women are single parents. They have children under their care. When they retire, they will get a meagre $9,000 pension. It is a joke at their expense.
I do not think there are a lot of government members who know how it is in real life, how much it costs to buy a pound of butter or to buy clothes for children. I will gladly take them shopping to show them the day to day reality of ordinary people.
It is high time workers put the government in its place. They are sick and tired of paying when the government does anything it wants with their money. On top of that, it likes to reward its friends.
I am not proud today. It is May 13. Usually, 13 is my lucky number. Today is not a lucky day for Quebeckers and Canadians, for those people who gave their all to do their job well. They gave their all hoping to have a decent income when they retire.
The government has other ideas. Instead of increasing this decent income, it takes money from these people. Then it says that it is for their own good. Oh, sure.
My parents taught me that a person who takes something from another person must be judged. One of these days, the Liberals will be judged. We will be able to say that we told them not to do that. They will be condemned, and I will be there to applaud.
In closing, I would ask the unanimous consent of the House to move the following motion:
That all government members, since the government has imposed time allocation on consideration of Bill C-78, at report stage, be prevented from speaking during today's debate on this bill.