Madam Speaker, on February 16 of this year, the Minister of Finance tabled his sixth budget in the House on behalf of the Liberal government. Year in and year out, Quebec pays over $30 billion on a budget of some $160 billion, including borrowings and so on.
You will certainly agree with me that Quebec is a real cash cow for this government in that, according to the books, we pay a lot more than we receive.
I would like to give you an example. In my riding, an asbestos mine, the BC Mine, was closed. It employed 300 workers, 200 of whom were over 52 years of age at the time of the closure. On June 26, the Minister of Human Resources Development, accompanied by the godfather of my riding, the good member for Beauce, came to announce that $1.1 million would be spent to help workers aged 55 and over. This spring, there were coal mine closures in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The same Minister of Human Resources Development has allocated $111 million. The $1.1 million for Thetford became $111 million for coal miners.
Another $68 million will come from Canada Economic Development and $80 million from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. Add it all up and you will get a total of $259 million for Cape Breton coal miners, compared to $1.1 million for asbestos miners.
I listened to the Prime Minister, who addressed last night 1,500 guests who paid $450 each to attend a fundraising dinner in Montreal. He urged Liberal senators and ministers to criss-cross Quebec to spread the good news. Try to go and ask the Minister for Human Resources Development to come back to Thetford. He is scared to go.
On the advice of the godfather, he went there as bearer of bad news, but he got so scared he had to flee in the car of the member for Beauce. Do you really believe that these ministers and senators who rely on the system to pay them fat pensions even if them do not make any effort are going to criss-cross Quebec? They are scared.
Take the millennium scholarships for example. It would appear that Ottawa is always trying to duplicate structures. In Quebec, there was and always has been an excellent system of loans and bursaries for post-secondary and university students. The Prime Minister and member for Saint-Maurice wants to interfere and, over a 10 year period, only 10 years, he will invest more than $2 billion in scholarships. Once again, he is duplicating structures.
There are two agriculture ministers. If your cow produces processing milk, it comes under the federal agriculture minister, but if it produces fluid milk it is up to Minister Trudel in Quebec to deal with it.
Same farmer, same cow, but two different agriculture ministers. Dairy farmers now have what is called mixed quotas. So both ministers have jurisdiction over the same cow. Two revenue ministers, two finance ministers, two health ministers for the same patient, the same Quebecers. Two natural resources ministers and we could list scores of departments which are duplicated.
To issue cheques with a maple leaf, the Prime Minister is prepared to duplicate our system of loans and bursaries, which is working perfectly well.
In order to save on taxes, the millionaire Minister of Finance, who is very familiar with the legislation, will register his boats in tax havens, and then he will tell us to tighten our belts. This is the same individual who helped himself to the $21 billion EI surplus, and who is going to grab the $30 billion surplus in government employees' pension funds.
The Prime Minister, who yesterday urged his ministers and Liberal senators to spread the good news throughout Quebec, should have a look at the article in today's Le Droit about the increasing unavailability of low cost housing. Not in the riding of Saint-Maurice in Shawinigan, but in the nation's capital, in Ottawa-Carleton. One in five tenants—or 20%—are spending more than 50% of their income on rent. Can we imagine having to spend more than half of what we earned just on accommodation?
This is news to the Prime Minister. He has no living expenses, because he has an official residence. I imagine it has been years since he set foot in a supermarket. If a couple has to spend half of their income on rent, there is no way they are going to be eating steak once a week.
On the topic of the GST—I see the member for Beauce listening closely—at least two of the women who elected the Prime Minister call me regularly, and they called again last month, to ask when he would keep his promise and abolish the GST. I told them that he made the promise in order to trick them into voting for him, but that he lied. So that he could save face once he was in office, the member for Hamilton East resigned, only to be re-elected three months later at a cost of $500,000 to taxpayers. These are the reasons I will be voting against the sixth budget brought down by the Minister of Finance. These are only a few of the things I want to mention, during the ten minutes I have.
I could also talk about the Minister of Human Resources Development, the man who is often out to throttle the neediest in society, our young people. Did members know that 100% of working youth contribute to the EI fund? They pay $2.55 for each $100 earned. Even though all the young workers pay, only 15% of them qualify for EI benefits. That represents a net profit of 85% for the government, on the backs of our young people.
The Liberals will go around Quebec spreading the good news. When he came to Thetford Mines, on the steps of the town hall, the hon. member for Beauce saw what the good news was. He is the one who so badly advised the Minister of Human Resources Development by inviting him to make his $1.1 million announcement on the steps of the town hall.
Asbestos miners know about Liberal fairness: $1.1 million for them and $259 million for coal miners.
I will leave you to ponder this and to ask yourself questions about the Minister of Finance's sixth budget.