Mr. Speaker, I have listened attentively to the remarks by my colleague, the hon. member for Westmount—Ville-Marie, who is also President of the Queen's Privy Council and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.
My colleague indicated that she was rather surprised at the words used by my leader, the leader of the Bloc Quebecois, in his reply to the Speech from the Throne. For my part, I was rather surprised at the words the government used in that speech.
Today they say it is implicit and that the Prime Minister intends to respect provincial jurisdictions and Quebec's jurisdiction. If it is that obvious, why does this government not act consistently and decide to vote in favour of the Bloc Quebecois' motion and the amendment? That would be consistent. That is what the people of Quebec expect, not the hidden agenda of the government that is, in principle, supposed to represent Quebec's interests. That is what it has been claiming for years. Except that the reality is otherwise.
All the Throne Speech confirms is the government's intention to make Quebec a mere regional component within Canada. It is a more centralizing throne speech than even Jean Chrétien could have presented in this House.
If such is not the case, I would ask the President of the Queen's Privy Council and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs how she can explain that on page 14 of the French text of her document, she uses the word “administrations” to describe the province and the provinces. It is as if the provinces had suddenly—in this flexible and asymmetrical federalism—become mere administrative bodies that could be compared to any other organizations or municipal administrations in Quebec or Canada.
How can she explain the fact that, if this is a decentralized speech that respects Quebec's jurisdictions, page 14 in the French speaks not of provinces but of “administrations?”