Mr. Speaker, first, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all those who were elected this past November 27 and to extend a particular welcome to my new colleagues.
We know that all hon. members want the House to be a true forum for debate. All of us represent the population of Canada and we, along with others of course, represent the population of Quebec. All of us have the required legitimacy to express a variety of opinions that characterize our distinctive societies.
There is one thing that strikes me in the Speech from the Throne, one statement that I must make. Canada is constructing itself in its own way, according to its own values, its way of doing things, its objectives. That is legitimate; we acknowledge that. Quebec does not, however, fit into this Canadian construct and it too must construct itself within a world that is evolving and changing at a dizzying pace.
There are two concrete examples of this. I am thinking of the Young Offenders Act. The government tells us of the flexibility within this legislation. I would remind my listeners that Quebec possesses, without a doubt, the most efficient system for rehabilitating young offenders. That is universally acknowledged. There is a totally different vision across Canada, one that is more punitive than rehabilitative. We do not want to impose our system on others, nor do we want a system that is not ours imposed upon us.
The government speaks of flexibility. Yet as far as justice is concerned, the weight of precedent, the weight of jurisprudence on which our justice system is built, at least as far as criminal law is concerned, knows no boundaries and will not stop at the Quebec border. In other words, decisions taken elsewhere, within a different mentality, might be used in a case in Quebec and lead to a result that is totally different from the objective pursued until now by the system in place within Quebec.
Why not remove Quebec from the application of this law, especially since this does not involve the criminal code? We are not talking about one criminal code for all of the country and a different one for Quebec, although there are proposals in this regard from the native peoples. In the case of young offenders who do not come under the criminal code, we want a different approach.
Why not apply the motion on the distinct society that this government boasts of passing? This represents an opportunity for the government to prove to us that the motion has some meaning, that it recognizes Quebec's distinct nature, in the case, for example, of the Young Offenders Act. There is a very broad consensus in Quebec among all the political parties, among all the stakeholders, from the police to social workers, yet the federal government says “No. Things will be done only one way, Ottawa's”.
The second example is that of parental leave. All the political parties in Quebec, the Liberals, the ADQ and the PQ, and women's groups, employers and unions all recognize and prefer by far the plan proposed by the government of Quebec because it is much better suited to modern realities. The Prime Minister talks of modernism, of the rate of change in the world, of our need to innovate and adapt to new realities. This is an opportunity to prove it.
Why is the federal government opposed to the plan Quebec is proposing? It had better not try to tell us that one complements the other. A thorough examination reveals obstacles to fully carrying out a plan that meets the needs of young people.
Why not take the time to negotiate? There is another year before Quebec implements its program. There is still time to sit down and look at the mechanisms that we could set up to ensure that there is only one plan and that young couples can fully benefit from it.
These are two consensuses that are dismissed out of hand by the federal government, but that same government is about to get its heavy hand in provincial jurisdictions. In fact, the Prime Minister was even clearer in his speech when he said that the federal government would get involved in education, yet education is clearly a provincial jurisdiction. I also just mentioned early childhood.
As for manpower, we thought the issue had been settled. An agreement was reached in 1997, but the federal government is back with a vengeance in that area.
Rarely have we seen a throne speech that touches on so many areas that do not come under federal jurisdiction while saying so little about issues that are under federal jurisdiction. This is somewhat disturbing.
Is there anything positive in this speech? I recognize that there are two good intentions that seem to be a step in the right direction. First, the government seems to want to address the causes of the problems experienced by aboriginal communities, by the first nations.
This effort, or at least willingness, is laudable and we support it. However, we want to see what it means in concrete terms. Will the government follow the Erasmus-Dussault report, which was accepted by the first nations and which we supported as soon as it was released? Nothing has happened since that report was made public. We will see, based on the quality of the proposed legislation, whether these good intentions translate into good legislative measures.
The second interesting point in the throne speech is that the government finally recognized the need for anti-gang legislation, true anti-gang legislation. While the government denied that such a need existed, we spent months asking questions to that effect in this House.
We pointed out, and rightly so, that if there are limits to the freedom of speech—as shown recently by the ruling in a child pornography case, which did not, however, raise the whole issue of freedom of speech in Canada—then there must also be limits to the freedom of association.
The government does acknowledge that stronger action is needed. We will have to wait and see if it comes up with concrete measures or only brings back something similar to what it put forward in 1997. I have told the government that time is of the essence. While we wait around, these groups are moving ahead. The government is duty bound to solve this problem before June and refer the issue to the supreme court.
There are some gaping holes, but mostly smaller holes, in this speech first about how the surplus will be used. The election was supposed to be on the surplus. That is what the Prime Minister told us when he called the election but now we have three options before us and we still do not know what the Liberals' position is.
The Prime Minister said that 50% of the surplus will go to debt and tax reduction and 50% to social programs. In his mini budget, the finance minister said that 80% of the surplus over a period of five years and not for the coming year will go to deficit and debt reduction and 20% to social programs. The star economist and new member for Markham, who used to work, I believe, for the Royal Bank, predicted a $2 billion deficit.
It would have been interesting to know from the Speech from the Throne which takes precedence: the predictions of the hon. member for Markham, the Prime Minister's speech or the Minister of Finance's figures. The answer to this is still forthcoming. It seems to me that it was the least that could have been expected.
Another significant omission is the whole matter of a shipbuilding policy. We had asked for Canada to have a shipbuilding policy. The Liberals voted in favour of a bill introduced by my colleague, the hon. member for Lévis-et-Chutes-de-la-Chaudière.
The Minister of Industry is in the process of touring Canada and people are telling him that the Bloc Quebecois bill ought to have been passed. There is not a single word in the throne speech on this issue and I find that disconcerting given the intolerable situation that prevails at the present time in British Columbia and in Ontario, but particularly in the Atlantic provinces and Quebec. There is nothing about this in the throne speech. This is rather disconcerting.
Another promise, the one concerning the highway system, should have been in the speech, but was also absent. My former colleague, Mr. Daniel Turp, was greatly interested in this issue. The member who replaced Mr. Turp in representing Beauharnois—Salaberry, the public works minister and the President of Treasury Board have all made a promise. They have said “It's official; there will be $357 million for the construction of two bridges”.
However, the letter from the Minister of Transport contradicts this statement. His answers to our questions today also contradict it. Have we come back to the old policy of promising to build bridges over the course of three or four elections? This seems to be the case with the Liberal attitude. Have we returned to the climate of 1993 when the Prime Minister wanted to eliminate the GST? That was not the way it was put, but let us say he wanted to eliminate the GST? We saw what happened: he reneged on his promise. The problem is the same with the promise with respect to the highway system.
There was nothing on the need for ethics in government. Over twenty investigations are underway into the administration of this government. Charges have been laid in some cases, including in the Prime Minister's riding. This is a serious matter. We raised these issues. Initially they denied the existence of such things. We simply asked that an ethics counsellor or adviser be appointed by the House and be made accountable to it. What is so dangerous about someone having the autonomy necessary to reach the most objective decision possible, certainly, and with the ability to speak freely?
What we have is a situation in which the Prime Minister chooses the counsellor, who is accountable to him even when he is investigating him. This is unacceptable. Naturally, they were saying today that the leaders of the opposition of the day supported the appointment.
I would point out two things. First, supporting an appointment is not enough. In practice we have seen where that has led the counsellor must be accountable to the House.
Second, in the recent appointments—I am thinking in particular of the privacy commissioner—the opposition parties were asked for their views. Our party did not approve of the appointment of Mr. Radwanski, but he was appointed all the same. That is why the House must go ahead, not the Prime Minister himself.
Members can imagine the situation if the person being investigated could select the police officers and the judge and if the latter were to hand down a verdict before considering the facts. This would be ridiculous and would diminish the quality of public life here and throughout Canada.
Another area not addressed was employment insurance. Even though the government admitted its error during the election campaign, there was nothing in the throne speech. We are told that a bill will be introduced Monday; that is all very fine and well. Apparently it will be the same as the one which was initially tabled but which never reached second reading in the last parliament. Despite the assertions of certain Liberals during the election campaign, this bill was never voted on.
That having been said, the bill is not good enough. We do, however, support a good number of its proposals, all the more so as they were ones we made for months on end to the government, which rejected them.
There is only one clause in this bill that we cannot live with and that is the one making it legal for the government to continue to divert funds rightfully belonging to the unemployed, to entrepreneurs and to employees. That is unacceptable.
Does the government really want to have more democratic, substantial debates here? Would it agree to split this bill so as to not uselessly trap opposition parties and to allow us to vote on what directly affects the services provided to recipients, those who really do need them? This would be a lot quicker.
True debate is necessary to discuss the final use made of such funds while people are being taxed for dubious reasons, since this money is being collected for all sorts of unrelated purposes. This is immoral.
Another source of concern in the throne speech is the government's intention to change financial institutions. I think this specifically refers to banks. We have some problems with that, particularly in regard to the National Bank, by far the largest bank in Quebec, which could be owned by a single person. This is disturbing. We expressed our concern about this some months ago.
Then there are the services provided to citizens by banking institutions. There has been a deterioration of services, and some people cannot have access to these services. I am now announcing that we will be proposing significant changes in that regard.
Another area of concern is that of sustainable official language minority communities. This is a new concept or designation. Is the government telling us that some communities are sustainable while others are not? We asked the question today, but did not get an answer, yet goodness knows plenty of time is taken in drafting a throne speech to choose the proper terms. Do not let them try to get us to buy the idea that this was a poor translation—that would be a rather serious mistake—because the word sustainable is no better. Does this mean that some communities are sustainable while others are not? That does not hold up. Some explanations are in order.
As for the health field, reference is made to the September meeting. The Minister of Industry was the premier of Newfoundland at the time, and all provinces were unanimous in calling for a return to the 1994 funding level. They were unanimous, yet this was refused.
Another thing the provinces refused was the creation of a citizen's council answerable to Ottawa, which would determine how health care needs to be delivered, whereas there is virtually no expertise on the other side of this House in this area, except where aboriginal people are concerned. There are huge problems with poor service delivery, and where the Canadian armed forces are concerned, it is a disaster.
They know nothing about this and yet they want to set standards instead of putting the funding back at its source so that the provinces may be really in a position to provide the required services.
There are also concerns about social housing. The terminology has been changed once again. Now it is called affordable rental housing. In other words, builders are to be given the money instead of those in need which is saying that the market will naturally succeed in responding to the needs of these people. We can see what is happening in California at the present time with electricity. I do not believe that the housing market funding can be handed over blindly without consideration to social housing needs at a time when there is a huge crisis in the major centres of Quebec and of Canada.
There is another concern relating to culture. Reference is made to Canadian culture. There is no recognition of the existence of the Quebec culture nor the aboriginal cultures. Only the Canadian culture is referred to.
The existence of national cultures is denied, including that of Quebec, and the existence of the Quebec nation is denied. Yet there is such a thing as the Quebec culture, and this is obvious to anyone spending a little time in Quebec and in the rest of Canada. One culture is not superior to the other, but there are different cultures. It would be best if they looked after Canadian culture and left us to deal with the culture of Quebec.
When I see that the “My name is Joe; I am Canadian” superhero has emigrated to the United States, I think there is cause for concern.
What I see in this speech is the extension of the social union, of the Canadian nation building concept. The only solution for us is to reach a new agreement, to create a new equal partnership between Quebec and Canada. Equal partnership means that both would have equal status. It means that Quebec must be a sovereign nation under a modern definition of sovereignty, different from what it was 40, 30 or even 10 years ago. Countries are different today, and it is this new world that we want to be part of.
This is particularly important to us with the creation of a free trade zone covering the three Americas, a concept we have always supported whereas the Liberals were against it a few years ago. We want to draw on models that exist in Europe, models with a common currency, something the Liberals refuse to discuss.
I am not saying that the option I am advocating reflects the majority opinion in Quebec. I am saying that the kind of federalism that we see developing in Canada does not reflect the majority opinion in Quebec either. I am saying that unfortunately Quebec is divided, that the Quebec issue remains on the table and that other people in Canada are increasingly perplexed about Ottawa's role.
We have a duty to think about that rather than to try to crush the aspirations of a people.
In closing, I would like to move the following amendment to the amendment:
That the amendment be amended by adding, after the word “provinces”, the following:
“and, consequently, Canadian federalism offers Quebec no option for redefining the partnership between Quebec and Canada except to become a sovereign country.”