Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. In replying to a question from his own party, the Minister of Labour made remarks about the evolution of steps taken to adopt the Act to establish the Wage Earner Protection Program Act, once known as Bill C-55.
In May 2005, the Liberals tabled Bill C-55 in this House. The bill had two elements. In one part, it created a wage earner protection program in the event of the bankruptcy of an employer and, in addition, it made amendments to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. The bill was adopted through a fast-track mechanism in the month of December 2005, on the eve of an election campaign. However, technical problems were later discovered. That is why, when the Conservatives were elected January 23, 2006, they asked for time to revise this bill and deal with the technical problems.
As a matter of fact, the Quebec Minister of Finance had raised a serious technical problem in a letter to the Minister of Industry. The Quebec Minister of Finance asserted that this government was intruding on Quebec’s field of jurisdiction and was changing the Civil Code by making it possible that RRSPs could be seized in the future.
For the Bloc Québécois this was uncomfortable, to say the least, and definitely unacceptable. We therefore asked the Minister of Labour to table his bill so that we could, once and for all, do what had never yet been done, submit the bill to clause by clause review in committee.
The Minister of Labour refused to do so. He tabled notice of a Ways and Means motion on December 8. Tabling of the bill, in proper form, followed this notice of a Ways and Means motion. With the cooperation and good faith of the Bloc, matters might have proceeded smoothly. We would have been able to propose our amendment on the seizure of RRSPs and everyone would have been happy. I would not be standing here today to talk about this bill and the Minister of Labour would not be answering questions from members of his own party about why he is right and everyone else is wrong.
The Bloc Québécois is here to protect the interests of Quebec, and that is what it is doing. We also want to protect the interests of workers, and we are doing that too. The minister has refused to table his bill. He will only agree to table it if we agree to fast-track it, that is, if we go through first, second and third readings in one day with no amendments. That is blackmail, it is undemocratic, and it is unacceptable. We have to be able to amend bills that need it, and this bill needs it.
The minister said several times in the House that he wanted the Senate to do the work of members of Parliament, which is also unacceptable. Every time we asked, he told us that we would have to fast-track it, then send it to the Senate where they would study it thoroughly and make amendments. That is unacceptable. Members of Parliament are here to vote on bills, amend them, improve them and study them.