Mr. Speaker, I add my voice to those of the hon. member for Frontenac—Megantic and our health critic, the member for Hochelaga—Maisonneuve, to say that after having supported the principle of Bill C-13 at second reading, the Bloc Quebecois now prefers to reserve judgment because of what the government intends to do about the amendments which were moved by the Bloc Quebecois to ensure that the Constitution is respected.
Since this debate is about health, and even health care, which is a provincial jurisdiction, and since Quebec is particularly concerned about federal encroachments in this area, encroachments which this Liberal government has sought to multiply since 1993, the Bloc Quebecois will feel an obligation to express its dissent about this bill establishing the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, if the amendments it moved are not carried.
The Bloc decided to take this position after a thorough examination of the bill, after having consulted the members of the community and having reached the conclusion that, again, this bill was a manifestation of this government's bad habit, a habit it could never get rid of, to use its spending power in areas of provincial jurisdiction.
Besides, this government might want to do the same today, when the Finance Minister tables his budget, since it has accumulated billions of dollars on the back of the poorest in our society and on the back of the provinces by drastically reducing social transfer payments.
So this government could well be tempted again today, in the area of health but also in education or social programs, to spend money it has accumulated that should be given back to provinces, and among them Quebec, which wants, with the means it should have at its disposal, to fulfil its responsibilities in areas which are under its jurisdiction.
This does not mean that the Bloc Quebecois does not support this budget increase for research and development. It does support this budget increase. It also salutes the efforts of researchers—and there are many researchers in Quebec who want to see an increase in research budgets.
In fact, health researchers in Quebec are among the most effective in Canada. They are the ones who succeed in obtaining the largest financial support, which proves that health research in Quebec is very dynamic and can rely on the support and the exceptional work of researchers in the major institutes that already exist in Quebec, in our major laboratories and also in our universities.
These researchers, who have helped in the drafting of this bill to obtain innovative tools to improve the sharing of health information and to support the development of advanced health technologies, must understand the Bill C-13 in its current form—and that is what the member for Hochelaga—Maisonneuve tried to explain to be very transparent with regard to the position the Bloc Quebecois is putting forward in the House today—could seriously encroach on provincial jurisdictions in the area of health.
Beyond health research per se, the bill often refers to health related issues without ever recognizing the provinces' responsibility with regard to delivering health services to the public, which I think is worth mentioning in the House.
In fact, the provinces' role is reduced to that of any other player. As in the case of any person or organization involved in the area of health, national mandates are given. In fact, the word national is being used more and more in the House. Everything the federal government does now is no longer federal but national. They want it to be national because they consider Canada a nation, whereas Quebec has always considered itself a nation and continues its efforts to make Quebec an open and pluralistic nation, one in which all citizens are equal and can play their part in building the Quebec nation.
There is another competing project, however, that of a Canadian nation, a nation that of course calls upon a national government, one which has a tendency to consider the provinces as municipalities—one of the first Prime Ministers of this country, John A. Macdonald, considered provinces to be big municipalities. This is unacceptable to the Bloc Quebecois, and our opposition is just one more instance in a long history of opposition by all the governments of Quebec, one after the other, which have constantly raised the importance of respecting the division of powers in the health field as in all areas that fall exclusively under provincial jurisdiction.
It will come as no surprise that this is, once again, a reason for the Bloc Quebecois members to defend the interests of Quebec in this House, but it is also an opportunity to remind people of something: the alternative to an endlessly centralizing federalism, of which Bill C-13 is just one more example, is a project to make Quebec sovereign and able to be its own master over health and other areas, able to freely control its future, to create research institutes in the way that it wishes, and able to ensure that Quebec researchers can have access to what is required in order to carry out the innovative research they plan to do.
The Bloc Quebecois cannot, therefore, endorse this bill as presently worded, and it insists on stating in this House that the problem does not lie with the creation of institutes per se. Research and development might fall within the category of residual powers and thus, theoretically, under federal jurisdiction. In the end, after careful analysis and reading, the bill provides for a real possibility of direct infringement of provincial jurisdiction in public health services, infringement that will, as happens all too often, not involve proper consultation with the provinces.
I may be permitted to remind this House that a few weeks ago, the start of this month, marked the first anniversary of the agreement, the framework agreement on social union, an anniversary that was not celebrated in Quebec, because the formula in this case too will permit the federal government—as the Minister of Health himself has said—to unjustly claim jurisdiction over health care and to impose its views on Quebec, even though Quebec opposes this bill's application to Quebecers and the agreement's application to it.
The Bloc Quebecois is therefore proposing a series of amendments aimed primarily at underscoring the importance of respect for the division of powers and at reaffirming the primacy of provincial jurisdiction in the field of health.
In closing, I would point out once again that in this House, despite claims of concern over health care, the government has unilaterally—it has the habit of doing things unilaterally—and irresponsibly stopped funding the health networks put in place in 1993 by its famous Canada health and social transfer program.
It is commendable that it is investing more in research, but it must not lose sight of the need to re-establish the transfer payments to the provinces. The research institutes must not be a means for the federal government to meddle in areas of Quebec jurisdiction.