Mr. Speaker, I want to inform you that I will be sharing my time with my hon. colleague from Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert.
I have one regret, this afternoon. I had a lot of work to do in the lobby and was focusing on what I was doing, but I should have entered the chamber earlier, because there is a real vaudeville act going on in the House. It is pretty unbelievable.
I want to tell my colleagues from Quebec that, as far as I am concerned, Quebeckers have always been shortchanged by Ottawa, all the way from 1867 to 1993, 1993 being the year that saw 54 Bloc Québécois members elected to this House with a fundamental mandate to stand up for Quebec exclusively. In caucus, when we discuss the direction Quebec should take, no one can be heard saying that Ontario will not like it. We do not care whether Ontario likes it or not. We are here to defend the interests of Quebec. In fact, we have advanced Quebec's interests since coming to this House.
I will remind the hon. members that French used to be spoken 8% of the time in the House of Commons. Two years after the Bloc Québécois was elected to this place, it had risen to 38%. Sitting in this House before the Bloc Québécois came to Ottawa was a fine bunch of colonized people.
Some do not respect democracy and wonder what the Bloc Québécois is doing here. To them I would say that I was elected, that 55% of people voted for me and that I won with a majority of 18,000 votes. What does that mean to my colleagues? We have no business being here? What does that mean? We do not have the democratic mandate of our constituents? It is quite the opposite.
If they do not want to hear the voice of criticism, the voice of disagreement, then they should start a dictatorship with a state run political party that does not tolerate anyone speaking out of turn. We do not have that type of government, or that type of parliamentary democracy. It is important for my colleagues to realize that.
The Conservative Party is wondering what the Bloc Québécois is doing in this House. Do they ever read a newspaper? Do they read the papers? Some 60% of Quebeckers say that the Bloc is necessary. Why do they say that? Because today, this afternoon in particular, people are standing up once again to defend Quebec and they are not afraid to confront people who do not share Quebec's interests and values. That is what we are hearing more and more.
Now I would like to give a little history lesson. In 1867, two nations got their start. This was an important time. Hand on heart, they decided to maintain the same number of representatives from Upper Canada and from Lower Canada. This was a solemn promise. Where are we today? There are 75 members from Quebec and 308 members in total.
There are proposals to further dilute Quebec's power. I am pleased to see my colleagues coming into the House. I hope they can ask me questions later. They will have only five minutes though.
I am pleased that the Bloc Québécois is standing up and denouncing all this. A federalist party would not. It would probably increase the number of members from English Canada, without changing the number of members from Quebec. That is how the Canadian confederation started and that is how it keeps going.
Something very significant happened in 1939. The federal government wanted to get into personal income tax. Get a load of this: in 1943, during the infamous war effort, 81% of the accounts and taxes were collected by the federal government. The provinces collected just 8% and the municipalities 11%.
Then, a bunch of Einsteins tried to encroach on Quebec's areas of jurisdiction. That was how it all started, and it is still going on today. With their budget surpluses, it is easy for them to encroach on provincial areas of jurisdiction. The provinces are being suffocated. They are responsible for offering the most important services, such as education and health, which are also the most expensive services.
What is the government saying? It is saying that it will help us, but that there are strings attached. That is how it is encroaching on our areas of jurisdiction. Quebec can no longer act according to its unique character or develop that character. If it wants to survive the federal stranglehold, it will have to comply with the government's conditions. That is what my colleague's motion is all about. Enough is enough.
If the government really wants to correct the fiscal imbalance, it will have to give tax points to the provinces so that they can be responsible for basic services for their citizens. No strings. The government cannot say that things are good this year, so it will transfer $800 million, but if things are not so good next year, it will transfer only $400 million. How are the provinces supposed to do any long-term planning that way? That is not what we need. The federal government has to get out of areas of jurisdiction that belong to Quebec and the provinces. It has to give money back via tax points, it has to tax less, and it has to give the provinces the power to tax more.
That is not what the Conservatives are doing. Why is that? As I keep on saying, this is a paternalistic and bullying government, one that loves to intrude. It wants to end up with the total assimilation of Quebec. It has wanted that for a long time. All this started back with Lord Durham. Such was Canada's tactic: surround and assimilate Quebec. The government is following suit, but more subtly. They are attacking our Bill 101. The Supreme Court is quietly demolishing it. They are getting into areas of jurisdiction and giving out money with strings attached. The conditions are Canada-wide, from one ocean to the other, even moving northward to our third ocean.
I predict that there will be one party that will stand up to this. I see us again as the only ones here to speak out and to act out, to put our words into actions by voting. Not just fancy words like the Prime Minister's, when he tells us that he recognizes Quebec, that it is a fine nation. He talks a good talk, but when it comes time to walk the walk, he does the same thing that has been going on ever since Confederation in 1867. He tries to dominate, assimilate, integrate.
It is always the same thing here, but in 1993 change started to set in , and the Bloc Québécois will still continue to be a presence. It is not true that the Bloc Québécois will disappear, as they imagine in their wildest dreams. I have been hearing that for 14 years: the Bloc is going to disappear. We have had five mandates so far, and every time those were majority mandates from Quebec. After all, we are not from some other planet. People vote for us and they have reasons to do so. It is because we represent the interests and values of Quebeckers, unlike the other parties.
If our Conservative and Liberal colleagues want to use some common sense, let them defend the basic point: withdrawal from areas that fall under the jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces, and compensate them accordingly. Let them quit imposing conditions on everything, let them make it possible for Quebec to choose its own direction and not impose one on us, as they want to do.
I will stop there, and will be pleased to answer questions from my colleagues who seem to have turned up in great numbers.