Mr. Speaker, when I listened to the beginning of the speech by my NDP colleague, I was finally able to understand why he is opposed to what the Government of Quebec is asking for.
The colonialist position taken by the federal government is present in all things, at all times. At the outset, he said that he did not understand why the cities of Quebec had been prevented from negotiating directly.
Municipalities are creatures of the provincial governments. The problem in Canada is that six provinces have smaller populations than the former city of Montreal, before it merged with its neighbours. Three provinces have populations smaller than the city of Laval. It is to be expected that some cities in Canada will look to the federal government for money, because the province does not have enough money to give them.
That is not our problem in Quebec. That is what we have been telling parliamentarians from the very beginning. They agree to discuss and to vote in favour of a motion saying that Quebec is a nation, but when it comes time to recognize that, by investing $328 million, because this is the only province in Canada and the only jurisdiction in North America that can achieve the Kyoto targets, parliamentarians say no. They say what the NDP has said: this must not be done, there must be action at the national level. There will never be action at the national level. The NDP will never be in power. And when the Liberals and Conservatives are in power, they have no development plan for achieving the Kyoto targets. That is the reality.
Is it not time for the NDP to support the unanimous request by the National Assembly of Quebec, which is a Liberal government, not a PQ government, not a Bloc government, which has made a request to the federal government stating that it is time that the federal government invest $328 million so that Quebec can achieve the Kyoto targets, a plan that has been recognized by environmentalists themselves?
We have not assessed that plan ourselves, and it is not the job of parliamentarians to assess it. Environmentalists are familiar with it and know that it is the best plan in North America. It is therefore time for the federal government to provide some return on the income taxes and the other taxes that Quebec has paid out of the $66 billion invested in fossil fuels in the other Canadian provinces.
I think it is time for the NDP to wake up and vote for the Bloc Québécois motion.