Mr. Speaker, I heard the Minister of Finance present his so-called economic update. As he was unveiling it, I was wondering if it was really an economic update. Was it a mini Speech from the Throne or an economic update that was not really one?
After evaluating the measures it contains, I eventually came to understand that it is a mixture of all of this. More than anything, these were ideological measures that had never been mentioned during the election campaign, which ended on October 14, or a month and a half ago. He had never before announced the measures contained in the update. Less than a month and a half after the election, he announced them out of the blue.
It was not an economic update; it was an ideological update. While every other government in the world is actively concerned and working to address the crisis, this government is doing the exact opposite. It has yet to present a plan to revitalize the economy that includes real measures to help the manufacturing and forestry sectors. That has not happened. It has not breathed life into the businesses or organizations that need it. Instead, it has decided to suffocate the economy. It is abandoning businesses, regions, people and artists. I will talk about that more later. The Bloc Québécois cannot accept that.
The Conservative government has decided to create a democratic crisis. As if having no economic plan were not enough, it is opting to take a laissez-faire approach. What it is telling people is that it is every man for himself.
What is more, the government is creating a real democratic crisis by deciding to suspend public servants' right to strike and to attack women, without telling us why. The Conservative Party's militant base is demanding these sorts of right-wing measures. The government is attacking women by doing away with pay equity. In the hope of imposing his own ideology more easily, the Prime Minister wants to muzzle political parties, unions and women, in short, any form of opposition.
He is attacking Quebec by repeating his intention to create a federal securities regulator. He is threatening Quebec by capping equalization. It was time for compromise, openness and action. The Bloc Québécois even made constructive, realistic, necessary proposals.
My colleague from Saint-Maurice—Champlain talked about the Bloc Québécois' economic recovery plan, which was designed to help the forestry and manufacturing industries—where the need is great—and workers, regions and families. This so-called economic statement does not contain any of our proposed measures. Yet the Conservatives had said they were willing to work with the opposition parties. They completely rejected the Bloc Québécois' proposals. This afternoon, in this House, the Minister of Finance rose to answer a question and admitted quite frankly, as if it were no big deal, that he had not yet read the recovery plan that the Bloc Québécois had drawn up and presented to all the journalists on the Hill. That is arrogance.
During the election campaign, the Bloc Québécois had told Quebeckers not to trust the Conservative Party, not to trust this government, which above all must not be allowed to have a majority. Today, fortunately, the Conservatives are in a minority position. We can only imagine the sort of mess we would be in and the sort of damage they could do if they had a majority. It would be scary. They would take away all unions' right to strike, not just the public service unions' right. They would do things we cannot imagine today, just as we could not imagine last week that they would come up with such an indescribable ideological statement. They would really have messed things up if they had had a majority. They would have gone even farther.
We must be suspicious of them in every way. I would like to thank the 78% of Quebeckers who voted against the Conservative government. I am extremely proud of them.
As it turns out, we discovered that instead of being called an economic and fiscal update, the document should have been called “Introduction to our Hidden Agenda”. That is really what it is. As my colleague said earlier, it is full of measures that are not in line with Quebeckers' interests and values. Quebec cannot accept that.
But it is in line with the wish list of the Conservative Party's militant right-wing base, as I witnessed in Winnipeg when I attended the party convention. It included many measures, three of which stand out. Conservative militants voted for three resolutions that would undermine the status of women, including a resolution on pay equity. The resolution asked the Conservative government to change the great “equal pay for work of equal value” principle. They succeeded in having it changed to “equal pay for equal work”, which means that a secretary will never be paid as much as a technician, even though they have the same training and responsibilities.
As an aside, Conservative spin doctors have pushed the message that the main reason we oppose the economic statement is that it cuts funding for political parties. True, we do not like that measure, but we have to put things in context and understand why there was once a government that decided in this House to grant funds to political parties. That happened after the sponsorship scandal. The maximum amount of money an individual could donate to a political party was reduced. If I remember correctly, it was reduced from $5,000 to $1,000. Today, it is $1,100, but it was once reduced to $1,000, and corporate contributions were prohibited.
To make up for that, the government was allowed to compensate. It was a compensatory measure for the two major restrictions that were being imposed on political parties. If someone in this House really wanted to eliminate this contribution and be fair, corporate funding would have to be restored or the maximum individual contribution would have to be increased. But as we have seen, this is not desirable, as demonstrated by the sponsorship scandal. Furthermore, the current situation was agreed upon by all.
As we all know, and as we have often heard, the only reason the Conservatives want to cut subsidies to political parties is that they are sitting on $18 million. So, their party managed to accumulate $18 million. Of course it is easier for a party when it is in power, but the Conservatives want to suffocate and destroy their adversaries, and ensure that there is no opposition. I will refrain from saying what I call a country that has no opposition; I do not wish to look like a demagogue.
There are many other ideological measures in the economic statement, and we must remember that it contains nothing for culture and nothing for artists. This government cut $45 million from arts and culture for no reason. No one knows why. It says it has some studies, but no one has ever seen them.
How the Minister of Canadian Heritage can rise in this House and defend those cuts is beyond our comprehension. In fact, what he is saying is false. He is not familiar with his files. He mixes up the programs. He talks about the promArt program, although when he mentions $7 million, he is clearly referring to the trade routes program, a program that does not fall within the jurisdiction of his department.
It is therefore very worrisome. It is absolutely crucial that the Minister of Canadian Heritage show us these studies, so we may try to understand exactly what is happening to culture and to our artists. Otherwise, we can only deduce that this is nothing but hostility, pure and simple.