Mr. Speaker, first let me say that I will be splitting my time with the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine.
I am very pleased to address the House today as the Liberal Party’s official critic for intergovernmental affairs, a position that my leader assigned to me a few weeks ago. I am glad that the member for Papineau has raised a subject as important as the federal spending power in this House.
I listened attentively to the speech by our colleague the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. I do not agree with a number of things he said regarding the success of his government, for example, with the alleged fiscal imbalance. I did agree with him on one thing, when he described the reasons why, in his view, the Bloc Québécois put forward this motion in the House today: that it is pointless to discuss a question as important as the fiscal imbalance when the discussion is led by a party that does not believe in Canada and whose objective is to separate Quebec from Canada.
It must be acknowledged, from the outset of our discussion, that the federal spending power is constitutional. It is a power of the federal government, of this Parliament, that the Supreme Court of Canada has assigned to the national government on several occasions. To us in the Liberal Party, it is an essential tool in the development and socio-economic progress of this country. Unfortunately, the Bloc Québécois sees the federal spending power as a conspiracy to invade areas that are under the jurisdiction of the provinces and to interfere in Quebec.
We do not see it that way. The federal spending power can be exercised responsibly, in partnership with the provinces. I would remind the member of the perfect example, in our opinion: the Liberal plan of the former Martin government regarding child care and early childhood education. The former Liberal government—Mr. Speaker, you corrected me by signalling me not to use the name of our former Prime Minister who still sits as a member, and I apologize—used the federal spending power precisely as part of a partnership to promote a very important social policy relating to children, early childhood education and excellent public day care everywhere in Canada.
For us, the federal spending power is an important instrument of social progress. It is something the Supreme Court has recognized as constitutional on a number of occasions but its use needs to be reasonable and responsible and in partnership with the provinces.
This needs to be pointed out: the Bloc Québécois has no interest in promoting a partnership between the federal government and the province of Quebec. As I said, and as the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities clearly explained, it is in the interest of the Bloc Québécois to make it plain that Canada cannot be a positive and responsible partner in the social progress of Quebec society.
I must also remind the House that our leader, the leader of the opposition, made enormous progress on limiting and circumscribing the federal spending power when he was Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs under a previous government.
In the Social Union Framework Agreement, the former Liberal government, with the provinces’ agreement, found a way for the federal government to be able to exercise its federal spending power, but in a responsible and constitutional manner. It is a way that in fact allowed for action to be taken in respect of social programs as important as the former early childhood education and day care program, a program that was in fact eliminated by the present government.
In our view, when the Liberal government signed the Social Union Framework Agreement with the provinces in 1999, the aim was to clarify federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions in relation to, for example, health care, social services, higher education, social assistance and training.
These are perfect examples where the federal spending power can be used responsibly, in partnership with provincial governments, to share the costs of these social programs that are so important for the country, such as medicare.
As I mentioned, this initiative was spearheaded by our leader when he was the intergovernmental affairs minister. It was the result of a willingness to limit the federal spending power in areas of provincial jurisdiction, but also a desire to ensure adequate, stable and viable funding for these social measures and to avoid duplication, to increase transparency and accountability and to deal with issues that may arise between governments.
I represent in the House a constituency in the province of New Brunswick. For our province and for Atlantic Canada, the federal spending power is an essential instrument of social and economic progress and, yes, sometimes in areas that the Constitution confines to provincial governments, this power can be used in partnership with the provinces to advance social policy and economic policy across the country.
The new Liberal Government of New Brunswick has a very ambitious program for self-sufficiency. Premier Graham and his government have outlined a number of initiatives that they plan on taking to make New Brunswick a have province, to make New Brunswick less dependent on the federal government and to make New Brunswick self-sufficient.
I think all members would agree that this is a very laudable and very worthy objective. However, if the Bloc Québécois were to have its way and the federal government could never spend money, even in partnership and in cooperation with provincial governments in areas of provincial responsibility, then the very ambitious higher education agenda that the province of New Brunswick has set for itself would not be possible because the province is asking the Government of Canada to be its partner, to use that federal spending power in a way that advances the common interests of the Government of Canada, the people of Canada and the people of my province of New Brunswick.
Our view is that the federal spending power need not be further limited than that done by the social union framework agreement negotiated by our leader when he was minister of intergovernmental affairs. It was a very historic moment when the Government of Canada accepted that the federal spending power in areas of provincial jurisdiction needed to be used in partnership with provinces on agreed upon objectives and not simply, as the Bloc would want people to imagine, as a way to intimidate or push provincial governments into doing things that they would not otherwise want to do.
Our country has many great social innovations, whether it is public health care, employment insurance, a federal role in the protection of economic security of elderly people, the Canada pension plan, old age pensions or minority language education.
I come from a province where education of francophone minorities is essential, and the federal government has an important role to play in this. For example, it has to ensure the survival of institutions that are important to us, such as the University of Moncton. We believe that, by trying to limit this power, the Bloc Québécois is acting irresponsibly. It sees no point in having a federal government that works actively, in partnership with the provinces, toward social progress.
This is why we oppose this motion by the Bloc. Indeed, the Liberal Party intends to vote against the motion of the member for Papineau. We believe that the federal government has a crucial role to play in the social progress and the economic development of our country. We see no contradiction between this role, the respect of provincial jurisdiction and the good partnership between national and provincial governments, including the Quebec government.