Mr. Speaker, as I rise today to speak to the economic statement, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people of Beauharnois—Salaberry for putting their trust in me for the second time in the recent election. The people of Beauharnois—Salaberry voted 50.1% for me, which is a powerful motivator. I am happy about that, and I would like to thank them and tell them that I intend to continue the work I have been doing in my riding and in the House of Commons since 2006 with the same passion, the same thoroughness and the same determination.
In the same vein, I would be remiss if I did not also thank all the people who worked on my campaign. I want to tell them that I owe this victory essentially to them, because of all the time and energy they put into the campaign. I extend my thanks to them.
I would like to speak to the economic statement delivered in this House yesterday by the Minister of Finance. Many things have already been said about this statement. I listened carefully to the speech by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance. Now, I would like to add my voice to those of my colleagues and share my reactions.
On listening to the speech by the Minister of Finance, the first thing I sensed was a great deal of provocation, pure and simple. There was the Conservatives' usual arrogance, along with the confrontational attitude we have seen before. The Conservatives had promised to be more conciliatory and to work with the opposition. Yet at the first opportunity, what they gave us was pure provocation.
We can see that this government has no concept of the political reality in which it has found itself since 2006. I believe the Conservatives do not understand how they fared in the election in Quebec and that they are turning a deaf ear to the message from the voters. The people have just barely given the government a second minority. Obviously, they do not want an election.
Since this is a time for compromise, openness and action, I cannot understand the attitude of the government, which has presented us with an economic statement that is very surprising, but unacceptable. The Conservative government, which had again said that it was prepared to work with the opposition parties, has—I would say deliberately—provoked all the opposition parties in this House since this session began.
Rather than tackling the economic crisis, the Conservative government decided to invent a democratic crisis—for reasons that are purely and strictly partisan, truth be told—by eliminating funding for political parties, knowing full well that this measure hurts third political parties in particular.
The government is claiming that it wants to save $27 million. And yet it did not hesitate to call an election that cost $300 million when voters did not want an election. Furthermore, this government broke its own law by calling an election for reasons that, I believe, were purely partisan. It just does not make sense. The Prime Minister said he wanted to call an election to be in a better position to manage the crisis. After calling an election and returning to power, the first thing he does is to again throw this House into a democratic crisis. He is not really doing anything to deal with the economic crisis and has not put forward a concrete plan.
The Prime Minister should have given workers a hand, but he decided instead to attack their rights by suspending the right to strike. As a woman, I am particularly affected by the attack against women in making pay equity subject to negotiation. I was very surprised, in today's question period, to note the silence of the Minister of State (Status of Women) who did not raise an eyebrow or express her disapproval, as a woman, of her government's position on pay equity.
This comes in addition to other actions by a government trying to obtain absolute power by attacking all opposing points of view, anything that does not suit its ideology, anything that does not match its world view and anyone who opposes it. It wants to silence them. Consider the media. It is no secret to anyone, and the government was highly criticized for it. We also know that it tried to block the work of parliamentary committees. It even attacked the credibility of the Chief Electoral Officer in the in and out scandal.
It also attacked the Auditor General by asking her to submit her press releases to the Prime Minister's Office for approval. It also attacked civil society groups that dared to take legal action against the government for some of its actions such as eliminating the court challenges program.
I would also remind the House that during the election campaign, the government announced unfathomable and unacceptable cuts to artists, and despite unanimous consensus in Quebec, it has maintained those cuts. The Minister of Canadian Heritage at the time promised during the election campaign that the programs would be replaced, but we know very well that this is false, since the new Minister of Canadian Heritage reiterated in this House that there was no way he would reverse his decision regarding programs to promote Canadian artists on the world stage to expand Quebec culture.
Clearly, this is a question of ideology. This economic update contains no economic or administrative decisions, only ideological decisions. The Conservative government is using this twisted method to impose its ideology more easily. It is using the economic update to silence political parties, unions and women, in short, to silence any form of opposition.
When I was debating with the Conservative candidate in my riding during the election campaign, I was able to see how much contempt the Conservatives have for workers and unions. I was debating with him about having empathy for people who lose their jobs, and about the fact that we must offer them what they need to get through this crisis. I felt the same way during my debate with the Conservative candidate as I did when I heard the Minister of Finance scoff at workers' rights.
We can see the logical progression, and that these decisions are purely ideological. Instead of presenting a plan to stimulate the economy and give it a boost, the Prime Minister went for measures that will stifle the economy. While all the governments in the world—this came up a lot today—are taking action to counter the crisis, the Conservative government is doing the exact opposite. The federal government did not get the job done. It did not do what it could have done when it comes to measures to help people and businesses through the financial crisis.
The only measure put in place to help individuals is a temporary reduction in RRIF minimum withdrawals. That is a step forward, but is it not nearly enough compared to what the Bloc Québécois has proposed.
We have been saying this for a week already. The Bloc Québécois proposed a series of measures to help individuals through the crisis. We would like the government to listen to us and implement the measures we proposed, not in a few months or a few weeks, but to implement these measures now to counter the economic crisis and help individuals and businesses through this difficult crisis.