Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Repentigny for his question.
He raised an issue that goes beyond cuts to culture, and that is the artificial recognition of the Quebec nation by the Conservatives. Since the government recognized the Quebec nation, all that has happened is that Quebec has lost ground in terms of what all Quebeckers want. The National Assembly of Quebec asked the government not to impose a Canada-wide securities regulator, because that amounted to interfering in the jurisdictions of Quebec and the provinces. The federal government decided to go ahead anyway. It is the same thing with culture.
Recognizing a nation means recognizing its distinctive and unique character and giving it the means to develop and take charge of that distinctive and unique character. That would have been a sign of openness. This government is constantly telling us that it is open to Quebec. It could have demonstrated that openness if it had agreed to the request from Quebec's culture minister, Christine St-Pierre, who asked the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages to transfer all the tools and responsibilities connected with cultural promotion by Quebec artists.
Since this request does not deal directly with the request made in Motion No. 297, I urge the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages to pay close attention to it. I also personally invite my colleague from Beauport—Limoilou to bring some pressure to bear on the heritage minister. Perhaps she could even ask her predecessor, from a neighbouring riding, to also exert some pressure, so that all Conservative members from Quebec might apply some pressure in that regard. All too often we have seen them roll over when it was time to defend Quebec's distinctive nature.
Like all members from Quebec, I urge her to bring some pressure to bear on the Minister of Canadian Heritage to recognize the uniqueness of Quebec culture and return full powers and responsibility in cultural matters to the National Assembly.
In the meantime, this does not release them from their duty to restore funding to the programs that were cut and significantly increase funding to the Canada Council for the Arts to provide direct assistance to our artists. It is important that money be put directly in the pockets of artists so they may express themselves and explore all the possibilities offered by their art, without having to experience the kind of objectionable situations we are currently seeing. Groups will have to lay off artists, cancel tours and stop creating, when that is what artists are asked to do.
I therefore thank my hon. colleague for this excellent question, which has allowed me to go beyond the strict framework of my motion.