Mr. Speaker, it is official: two days ago, the Bouchard government kicked off Quebec's referendum campaign in good Le Hir style with a series of partisan studies on social union.
Not surprisingly, the overall solution proposed was the separation of Quebec from the rest of Canada. Anything less would have been a bombshell. As in the 1995 referendum, the public will obviously be left to pick up the tab for these studies, which comes to approximately $66,000.
Clearly, the PQ government has no intention of working to improve the Canadian social union. Once again, the separatists would rather launch Quebec on a path of political uncertainty, which does not augur well for the coming months. It is a sad road ahead.