Mr. Speaker, before I begin my remarks, I would like to congratulate my colleague, the member for Louis-Hébert, who made it possible for us to debate the urgency for the Conservatives to take action regarding the future of the Quebec bridge. Were it not for a Bloc Québécois member, this debate would not be taking place today.
With the support of the opposition, I would like to clarify a few things the member for Outremont said. I have been here since 1993. The Liberals have been in power at times since then. I remember the questions I asked in the House about the future of the Quebec bridge, about its safety, and about maintaining an important structure recognized as being significant to world heritage.
At the time, we asked the Liberals to pay all of the costs associated with repairing and maintaining the Quebec bridge. At the time, we were told that there was a formal demand. The former member for Outremont, who was replaced by the current member for Outremont, told us that there was a formal demand, that they could not answer the question, and that we had to wait. Now the Conservatives are in power, and they say that the matter is before the courts.
I completely agree with the new member for Outremont that the government is putting things off. Earlier, we all heard the parliamentary secretary acknowledge the virtues of this architectural masterpiece. He described how it was designed and built, all of the obstacles encountered during construction, and the collapse of the cantilever bridge that claimed many lives.
Acknowledging that is all well and good, but that is one thing, and taking action is another. There can be no doubt that today's motion is critical. Why? Because the necessary restoration work is expected to cost many millions of dollars.
I would like to point out that there are five Conservative members from the Quebec City region, in my region, in the area around my riding. The government gave $440 million to restore the Champlain, Victoria and Jacques-Cartier bridges—which is great and fine by me—but Conservatives from the Quebec City region should also have put pressure on the government to ensure that some money was allocated to the Quebec bridge.
We know very well that their way of avoiding the problem is to say that the issue is before the court. But we also know very well, as my colleague and the member for Outremont said, that this legal agreement would not prevent the Superior Court from ruling on this case.
We are not asking the Conservatives to show sensitivity, but to show some respect for what the Quebec bridge represents to the people of Louis-Hébert and to all people in the Quebec City region. It is not only an important vehicle for economic development, but it is also, as was mentioned earlier, a recognized heritage structure. If we want to keep it in that state, we must not wait until it is too late.
Even the Auditor General wrote in 2005 that Transport Canada needed to act to ensure the long-term viability of the Quebec bridge.
I believe that the Conservatives are not acting in good faith. We had a question from the parliamentary secretary asking us about the history, and what engineers had helped build the bridge. Come on.
This bridge is deteriorating. Delcan has produced a report. The Conservatives have a copy of this report. The report talks about the state of the bridge. the bridge is deteriorating. There is a lot of rust and it is spreading.
Even if we wait 10 years, the bridge will still be in terrible shape. By then, we may no longer be able to consider it a historic monument and heritage structure. It will not do us any good to know when it was recognized as such. But that is not what we are talking about today.
The bridge is showing its age, and it is rusting more and more quickly. As Mr. Beaulieu, the former director of Laval University's civil engineering department, said, the time to act is now. What we need is a political decision.
The Quebec bridge and heritage preservation in general are not exactly the Conservatives' cup of tea. Quebec's military heritage is also falling into ruin. Drastic measures are necessary. But once again, the Conservatives are nowhere to be found.
The budget included a $100 million envelope, but it disappeared and nobody seems to know where it is. When we ask elected Conservative representatives questions in the House, instead of reassurance, we get pronouncements on other subjects and no assurance that millions of dollars will be allocated in the next budget.
Today, we want the government to feel the heat and wake up. They have to drop their laissez-faire approach to heritage preservation.
The saga around the armoury is another example of the Conservatives' laissez-faire approach to heritage preservation. More than a year and a half after the fire, the government is still investigating and asking people to assess parts of the building. The contract for this work was awarded to a Toronto firm instead of a Quebec City firm. That shows how interested the Conservatives are in heritage.
We can see why the Conservatives cannot meet Quebeckers' expectations.
The Liberal Party has shown openness to the motion, and we will see what happens in the coming days, when the time comes to vote. This is a votable motion. The Bloc is counting on the support of the NDP and the Liberal Party.
I hope that the vote will force the Conservative Party to act and that it will set aside money in the next budget. The government can no longer hide behind the argument it trots out every time we ask questions in the House because the issue is before the courts.
Today, it is the member for Louis-Hébert who has brought this debate before the House. This debate was brought before the House a second time because a Bloc member represented the riding of Louis-Hébert. Then the riding was represented by a Conservative, who did not bother to raise this issue in the House.
I hope we can take advantage of the openness that exists so that the members from the Quebec City area can finally respond to the demands coming from the community. A coalition was formed, but it no longer exists.
One thing I know about the Conservative Party is that it lets issues drag on. It was the same thing in the case of Shannon. Coalitions are forming and trying to put pressure on the Conservatives. The Shannon case is before the courts, and the government has changed attorneys to fight the class action suit.
The other day, the Minister of National Defence said that the Conservatives would do everything they could to prevent this class action suit from going to court. If the government told us it did not want a class action suit because it wanted to settle the matter, that would be a different story. But that is not what is happening.
We hope that the opposition parties will force the government to finally shoulder its heritage responsibilities.