Mr. Speaker, we are having a debate today and it is an opposition day sponsored by the Bloc Québécois. In this debate, we are raising two questions. We call on this government to renounce two measures contained in the budget. We could address other measures, we think there is a consensus on these two in Quebec.
It was mentioned earlier that there had been a consensus at the National Assembly, a consensus on the banks, the financial market and a consensus on a Canadian securities commission, a consensus opposed to this commission's being aimed at the Ontario market.
How can the members from Quebec, the members of this government, be against such a broad consensus in the National Assembly of Quebec and other intervenors in the financial sector? I do not understand.
The second question, which also leads us to call for a renunciation of certain measures. concerns the equalization formula, and I will come back to it shortly.
I would first like to address the securities question. We all know that the provinces have jurisdiction over securities because of the authority given them over property and civil rights by subsection 92.13 of the Constitution Act of 1867.
The government is on the wrong track with this national securities commission, a single regulatory body. There would be a regulatory monopoly. The government has handed out $150 million to set up a group of experts to harmonize certain recommendations appearing in a report. Really, $150 million.
This is a flagrant violation of Quebec's jurisdictions. This is nothing new, since other governments besides the current one have tried to take this route. There was the Liberal government as well. Year after year, we have managed to counter the desire of the governments sitting in this Parliament to establish a single securities commission.
I wonder why the European community finds establishing a passport system a good way of controlling things. Why the passport? Because it allows companies registering in one the of the participating provinces to do business with everyone in all the provinces, except—and this is weird—Ontario. It is off on its own and is not interested in the proposed harmonization, an approach praised by the European community. To create a single securities commission would be to create a regulatory monopoly. This is why the Bloc is opposed to the idea, and we said so concerning the last budget.
We believe that this situation is dangerous given the very high concentration of regulated industries which would cause advantages to be lost both in Canada and, in this case, in Quebec. The prevailing regulation encourages competition. To go in this direction makes no reference to this consensus of the National Assembly of Quebec, which passed a motion urging a step back from this proposal.
Why is Ontario going it alone? And they want to establish a securities commission in the province that is presently acting on its own and does not want to be bound by the existing body of regulations? Even the Autorité des marchés financiers says that it is the last bastion before the disappearance of stock exchange activities. So there are a lot of repercussions for Quebec, and that is why the Bloc Québécois is against this direction, out of respect for Quebec’s jurisdiction in securities.
As for the second aspect of today’s question, once again, we do not understand how the hon. members who come from Quebec and sit on the government side can tell us that equalization respects the will of the representatives of Quebec or the population, and that it represents more money.
During the election campaign, we did not understand the Quebec Liberals who were saying we would lose about $75 million due to the way the calculation of equalization was being set up.
On November 3, a federal-provincial meeting of finance ministers was held, which was attended by the minister from the Conservative government. They said it would be barely $75 million. That is money, all the same. After the election of the Liberal Party in Quebec, people woke up and realized it would be a loss of a billion dollars. The Parti Québécois had it right during the election campaign. All of sudden, the Liberal Party realized that it meant a net loss of one billion dollars for the coffers of the Government of Quebec. We are told there is a lot of money for Quebec, but there would be even more money for Quebec if the agreement had been respected, for example. The Prime Minister had just told the Premier of Quebec that there would be an open consultation with the Government of Quebec. I have the letter in my hands, and I could quote a large part of it concerning the desire to respect the fields of jurisdiction of the provinces and of Quebec. They have talked to us about the open federalism of this Conservative government. But the more we proceed, the more we see how the Conservative government flouts the will of Quebec.
The way the Conservative government has gone about calculating equalization is simply unthinkable.
The other aspect of the issue—as we have said earlier—is the way in which revenues generated by Hydro One and Hydro-Québec are handled. If revenue were calculated the same way for Quebec, we would have $250 million more. So how can the Government of Quebec still trust this government?
A number of letters have been written by the Quebec finance minister—no sovereignist she—which reached the same conclusions on this as the Parti Québécois has on this issue.
This is why the Bloc cannot vote in favour of this budget, because Quebec is the loser. There are other aspects of the matter that we have not discussed either. For example, the job losses in the manufacturing and forestry sectors. There is just a few million for Quebec, compared to $2.7 billion for the automotive industry. That is a real double standard.
How can it be that the people who have become MPs and members of Cabinet in this Conservative government are thumbing their noses at what Quebec wants in order to progress, to become more productive and more competitive? And then, how is it possible to become more competitive on the stock market and the financial market, with the creation of this securities commission? Do you know what we are being told? They will leave the provinces free to join this single securities commission. But you know very well what will happen. When there is a choice, they will abandon Quebec and join with the securities commission in Ontario.
I cannot understand how Quebec MPs, members sitting here in this Parliament, can forget Quebec when they arrive here in this Canadian Parliament. That has happened all too often. The province is no longer close to their hearts.
They can try to sell us on anything all day today, but we have the documents here to tell us not to go in that direction. If today the Bloc is standing tall, is it because we have promised to speak out whenever things are heading against the interests of Quebec, and that is what we are doing today in bringing a motion like this one to the House.