Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise and speak to the subamendment introduced by our party, the Bloc Québécois. It reads as follows:
That the amendment be amended by deleting all the words after the word “contains” and substituting the following:
“initiatives that do not meet the expectations of Quebeckers who have asked that the current year’s surpluses be used to help workers and industries in the manufacturing and forestry sectors, which are facing a serious crisis in Quebec, to help seniors living below the poverty line and help individuals improve the energy efficiency of their homes, calls on the government to implement these measures before the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2008, and deplores that this Budget ignores the fiscal imbalance by not transferring $3.5 billion to Quebec and the provinces for post-secondary education and by not eliminating federal spending power”.
This is a very wise amendment that is in synch with the interests and values of Quebeckers. All this has come about because the Conservative government decided to take the $10.2 billion surplus for the current year. That is why we have set March 31 as the deadline. The government has enough time to act by then. As a Liberal member said earlier, if the government can put in place measures to spend $1 billion on the community trust to help the manufacturing industry by March 31, it can make political choices about how to use the $10.2 billion, other than putting it all towards the debt. That is what the government is doing at present: it is using the $10.2 billion to pay down the debt. It would have enough time and money to respond to the demands made by the Bloc Québécois, as long as it wants to.
That is why the Bloc Québécois did not hesitate to say that the Conservative members—including those from Quebec—who vote in favour of this budget in the House will be acting against the best interests of Quebeckers. Quebeckers of all stripes—from the Liberal government's minister of finance to Mario Dumont, leader of the ADQ and Pauline Marois, leader of the PQ—have denounced this budget.The fact that so many politicians and citizen stakeholders have stood up to denounce the Conservative budget means that the Conservative government is failing to respect the interests and wishes of Quebeckers.
I always find it surprising that Quebeckers sitting on the Conservative benches will do anything to save their jobs or their portfolios. They would rather roll over, sit up and beg for oil companies, nuclear power interests and the military, than help seniors, workers in the forestry and manufacturing sectors and older workers. Once again, they have decided to bow down to their western Canadian colleagues and do the bidding of the powerful lobby that is pulling the Conservative government's strings.
Even sadder is the fact that this is affecting our fellow citizens' quality of life. Some 150,000 jobs have been lost in the manufacturing and forestry sectors. The government would have us believe that all is well with the economy and that jobs are being created, but $25 per hour jobs are being replaced with minimum wage jobs. That is what is really going on. Such is the bondage to which the Conservative Party would have Quebec submit. The Conservatives want Quebeckers to give up good jobs for minimum wage jobs.
That is the truth of the matter: the government is always looking for ways to impoverish Quebec. Vehicle assembly plants in Quebec were closed—thanks to the Government of Canada, there are none left. Now, the only thing the government is doing to help the manufacturing sector is giving $250 million to support auto manufacturing in Ontario. That is the truth of the matter.
Yes, that is hard to accept, especially when men and women lose their jobs, because it makes it hard for families to make ends meet. Some children get nothing to eat before going to school. Some seniors have a hard time paying rent and feeding themselves. That is the truth of the matter.
Indeed, many older people do not have the $1,100 they need to rise above the poverty line. My hon. colleague from Repentigny knows why he is fighting.
These men and women, who worked their entire lives, are no longer able to make ends meet today. Medication, housing, everything is more expensive, but these people do not see their income going up any. That is the truth of the matter.
As my hon. colleague said, 26% or 24% of older people—a large majority of them—will still be living under the poverty line in 2015. What this government is now proposing to them is that they work in order to qualify for a tax credit of $3,500. Once again, this shows contempt for human beings. That is the Conservative way.
We, on the other hand, are well aware of the problem. Thanks to the media and advertising campaigns, they still manage to conceal the hidden side—please excuse the redundancy—of the Conservative Party. That is what is really going on. Day after day, the government remains in place. Perhaps that is the Liberals' strategy. Perhaps they think that by leaving the Conservatives in power, people will ultimately see their true colours. But the problem is that, the longer this goes on, the more people will also see the true colours of the Liberals, which is too bad for them.
While Conservative members from Quebec bow down to their colleagues from the west, the Liberals are hiding under their seats so much do they not dare vote in this House. That is the image they are sending to Quebec society. It is a terrible image of politicians here in Ottawa to be sending to the public. It does nothing to boost the image of politicians.
Once again, the Bloc Québécois cannot just sit back. We have no choice but to stand in this House and vote against this budget, given that Quebec citizens, workers in the forestry and manufacturing industries, are losing their jobs and seniors do not have enough income to make ends meet every month. That is the reality and we cannot ignore it, especially when we consider the salaries earned in this House. The only ones able to ignore reality are the Liberals, who are just sitting back, and the Conservatives, who are adopting measures that run counter to the interests of the most disadvantaged in society.
With this subamendment, the Bloc Québécois is telling the Conservatives that they still have time—until March 31—to act. They have a reported surplus of $10.2 billion. The Minister of Finance said so and it is even in the budget. Rather than putting the whole amount against the debt, the Conservatives should reinvest a sizeable amount, say $3.5 billion, in the forestry and manufacturing industries. With $3.1 billion, they could repay their debt to seniors who are owed arrears of the guaranteed income supplement. They could use $800 million to increase by $100 per month the amount of the guaranteed income supplement payable to seniors.
We must not give up and we must not get discouraged. The Bloc Québécois knows this; we are strong. Election after election, we represent a majority of Quebeckers in defending the interests and values of the people of Quebec. Why? Because we are the only members able to rise in this House day after day to defend the interests of Quebeckers. There is no one else. The Liberals stay seated, the Conservatives rise to defend the interests of western Canada and the NDP is waffling and looking for direction. The Bloc Québécois is the only party able to defend the interests of Quebeckers day after day.
This is why all the other parties will find us in their path in Quebec, whether an election is held tomorrow, the next day, in one year or in 18 months. I am proud to rise every day in the House to say that Quebeckers are well represented in Ottawa by a social democratic party that is not afraid of saying to those who decide to invest everything in the military, nuclear or oil sectors, that it is time to help seniors, workers in the manufacturing and forestry industries and the less fortunate in our society, because they have the means to do so. Together, we are able to create good programs. Once again, the only party that defends the interests of Quebeckers is the Bloc Québécois.