Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to split my time with the member for Saint-Hyacinthe--Bagot.
When I read the motion put forward by the NDP, I said to myself that it contained many good intentions and certainly a number of principles that we share. However, constitutionally, it is flawed.
I would respectfully submit that the difference between the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP, if one must be found, is that although we are both motivated by generosity in the way we want the government to intervene in people's lives and in the way we want wealth to be redistributed, my party believes that the right governments must be made accountable. I believe that this is a fundamental difference. It is not enough in politics to want something to happen and just assume that it is not a concern for those who must implement it.
In January or February, I myself attended the NDP convention, having many friends in that party. As you know, Mr. Speaker, I have friends everywhere, and I am very proud to count you among. When I attended the NDP convention, I followed the proceedings and I was very surprised to see just how centralizing their thinking was.
I respect this in a democratic framework but, God knows, it is not something the Bloc Quebecois would go for. Delegates passed a resolution calling for the creation of a department of urban affairs that would deal directly with municipalities. This is obviously a notion which appears in one of the 12 points before us, in connection with infrastructure.
Delegates also passed a resolution calling for a national early childhood policy. Clearly, interference can go pretty far. Ultimately, the various provincial governments—we use the term “national” in speaking about the government of Quebec—could be reduced to nothing more than gigantic municipalities. We do not think that this would be in Quebec's best interests.
Once again, this is not to deny the generosity of the principles put forward in a motion such as the NDP's, but we must think about who is going to have to implement them. I think that this is a very important part of the Bloc Quebecois's position.
I will start with the issue that concerns me the most, and probably the one with which I am most familiar, namely health.
This morning, I had the opportunity to speak with Roy Romanow, the former premier of Saskatchewan, who was also justice minister and deputy premier of his province and, most importantly, intergovernmental affairs minister at the time of the patriation of the constitution. In fact, I told him jokingly “Today, you are concerned with surgical knives, but there was a time when you were more concerned with long knives”.
I do not know if he appreciated my sense of humour, but I was obviously referring to his involvement in that issue. Quebecers remember him. I saw him on television. It was in 1981, and I was 19 years old at the time. He had close ties with the government of the present Prime Minister, and it is well known that he worked very overtly, but also very covertly, to negotiate a constitutional system that was rejected by the National Assembly and by all parties represented in the National Assembly.
This morning, I met Mr. Romanow in parliamentary committee. We know how the government shamelessly set up a royal commission headed by a commissioner. The mandate of this royal commission is to review Canada's health care system.
I asked him “Do you not feel a certain lack of legitimacy, from a constitutional standpoint, to find yourself in a position where the government would give you such a mandate?”
In 1957, when hospital insurance was first introduced—members will recall that it was first introduced in western Canada—the federal government had made the commitment to finance the various hospital insurance plans on a 50-50 basis. It started in western Canada and spread to the other provinces, including Quebec. However, Quebec later withdrew and set up its own hospital insurance plan.
Moreover, it is not without significance that the father of hospital insurance in Quebec, Mr. Castonguay, who was a Liberal minister during the Quiet Revolution, wrote in La Presse the other day that the government was responsible for the problems being experienced by the provinces, because his estimation of the value of the federal government's withdrawal was nearly $30 billion.
In the health field alone, our estimate is $14 billion, yet the father of Quebec hospital insurance, who cannot be accused of being sovereignist, has delivered a verdict with a lucidity that should win over the Liberals.
I told Mr. Romanow “You would have had far more legitimacy if you had been put in charge of a commission of inquiry, and if the federal government had always respected its historical commitments”. The hon. member for Saint-Hyacinthe--Bagot has rightly reminded us that, for every dollar spent on health by the provinces, the federal government provides 14 cents, whereas historically that amount ought to be 50 cents.
Hon. members will recall that, in 2000, all provincial first ministers, regardless of political persuasion, called upon the federal government to restore transfer payments to at least their 1993-94 level, which would be 18 cents on the dollar. This would have made the figure for 2005 not $21 billion but $28.9 billion. This is a battle which the Bloc Quebecois of course supports most enthusiastically in the House.
We have always pointed out that we do not need the federal government telling us how to reorganize the health system. Moreover, in committee this morning, I made a deposition which I would be happy to repeat here for those who are interested. I said that seven out of ten provinces had already had task forces to analyze the major changes. They do not say that the status quo is acceptable, they do not say that there will be no changes in the way the delivery of health services will be organized, but they do say that this debate is not up to the federal government.
The federal government is responsible for transfer payments and sharing resources. It has a fiduciary responsibility to First Nations. It is responsible for defence. It is responsible for epidemics and quarantines as well as approving drugs. However, it does not have any direct responsibility, except for this clientele, for service delivery.
How legitimate can the Romanow commission be when Quebec already has the Clair report and that the provinces as a whole have already done their work in the matter?
It just happens that my gently Bolshevik NDP friends are proposing more national standards and that the federal government be even more centralizing than in the past. Unfortunately, such a position cannot be supported by the Bloc Quebecois.
I take the opportunity of the distinguished presence of the member for Jonquière to talk about regional development. She will correct me if my figures are wrong, but during the last election campaign the Liberals, under the direction of the Prime Minister and also the current justice minister and immigration minister, made promises to the tune of $3.5 billion. This is not peanuts.
This is Duplessis style politics, a kind of benign patronage that has been the norm on the government side. It made commitments to the tune of $3.5 billion and, in its most recent budget, it offered a $108 million strategic infrastructure program to build roads.
It earmarked 4% for roads, when it promised $3.5 billion. I believe the time when it could shamelessly think it would not have to be acountable and that the people in Quebec could be tricked by all kinds of election promises is gone. Do you know why it is gone? Because the Bloc Quebecois is here to stand up for Quebec, to look after its interests.
I sat to the government that together with the member for Jonquière and all the other Bloc Quebecois members, we will not accept that it does not keep its election promises and does not follow through on them.