Mr. Speaker, when I was the vice-chair of the Lanaudière Regional Health Board, as I said in my speech, the federal Minister of Health of the day came to visit us. We told him about our needs to meet the people's expectations.
He just hid behind his role as a minister and said “Yes, I will give you a little bit of money. I do not have much, but I will give you some”. He left without taking into account the priorities of the regional board. He visited various groups in the area and asked them to put a nice ad or a nice article in the paper saying that the Minister of Health had given them $10,000, $15,000, $60,000. For instance, he gave a hospital $55,000.
First, he interfered in an area under Quebec jurisdiction. Second, he did not pay any attention to the regional board's priorities or to the action plan that had taken us years to develop. This is scary. Such total lack of respect.
My colleague asked me what we could do. I think that the more I know the Canadian federal system, the more I realize that this lack of respect is blatant; it hurts me. Whenever I have a chance, I do not pretend otherwise, I tell my constituents, I tell my friends, and I tell everybody I know that, for Quebec, this system is no longer liveable. We must get out of it for the simple reason that we are being stifled.
As a Quebecer, I am being stifled. I am telling you, go and ask francophones outside Quebec, go and ask people in Alberta. I have relatives in Manitoba, and they are telling me exactly the same thing. We must leave this system.