Madam Speaker, I have rarely heard so many ridiculous speeches in the House. Quite frankly, this minister's constituents deserve better. I was wondering why there were problems between the federal government and Quebec regarding meals on wheels, when there were never any issues before this minister came along. I can see that he is making the situation a lot worse with his partisanship. I am talking about interference.
The minister is saying that it is appalling that the Bloc Québécois is plotting to put the Conservatives in power in order to achieve sovereignty. It seems as though the minister has not reviewed the history of Canada and Quebec. By definition, it is the current Liberal government that has implemented programs that interfere in provincial jurisdiction in a way that we have not seen in a very long time.
Take the dental insurance program. We support the idea of dental insurance for seniors. Why did the government not engage in discussions before announcing it? They scribbled it on the back of a napkin to keep themselves in power until 2025. Instead of immediately taking partisan action to stay in power as long as possible—since the polls show that things are not going well—they should have sat down with a province like Quebec. Quebec runs a program that does not cover seniors, but it did cover a certain number of people and was administered by a public agency, the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec, or RAMQ. Now, they are scribbling it on the back of a napkin. Quebec is asking for money to improve its dental insurance program. Seniors would be covered, but we would not have to pay $2 billion in administrative costs to a private company. How can the government take pride in setting up a so-called public dental care program when it is forking over $2 billion to a private company? Not to mention all the problems dentists have had. We have heard dentists say that it does not make sense, that they do not even know if they will be reimbursed. They see all these patients and then get denied by Sun Life.
In short, it is nonsense to claim that the Bloc Québécois is here strictly for its political purposes to stir up trouble. When I arrived in the House in 2015, we called for the GIS to be automatically given to people who, when they filed their tax returns, were eligible for it. Before that, according to the statistics we commissioned, there were a lot of people who were entitled to it, but the Canadian government did not tell them. People had to apply. That was when Minister Morneau, the finance minister at the time, agreed to put it in place, but in 2018. It was the Bloc Québécois that fought for the GIS in the early 2000s, and yet, this program falls strictly under federal jurisdiction.
Now we are being told that it is going to cost far too much. We are talking about $3 billion to make a federal program fair for seniors. There is no money for that, we are told. On the other hand, we had money for Trans Mountain, to export oil, to make oil companies richer. We had $34 billion. The government also had $83 billion to give tax credits to the five big oil companies, which raked in $220 billion in profits. I would add to that $2 billion in administrative costs.
It is not at all a matter of cost. It is about priorities. The government interfered in programs with costly redundant structures. It now has to be careful because that will come back to haunt them.
The government had no business getting involved in that. If it wanted to get involved, it should have sat down with the Government of Quebec and respected the will of the Quebec National Assembly. That is also what we represent in the House. The government should have created something that would make sense, at a lower cost, and that would cover everyone.
When the Bloc Québécois voted against this program, it voted with the unanimous support of the National Assembly. When the minister lectures us about being hypocrites, it should come as no surprise that he does not have good relations with Quebec and the Government of Quebec. In fact, it has such poor relations with the Government of Quebec that the Premier of Quebec is meddling in federal elections. However, every time we ask a question in the House, the Minister of Health or the Minister of Justice rises to tell us that the government has a very good relationship with the Government of Quebec and the National Assembly.
We tabled all sorts of motions. One of them said that the National Assembly was opposed to pharmacare. Quebec wants the money, with full compensation, to manage its own programs. When a minister stands up and tells me that we are against seniors and that we are opportunists because the government is in a minority Parliament, this is ridiculous. Not only is it ridiculous, but it insults the intelligence of our seniors.
My colleague from Shefford has done extraordinary work on this issue. Now the minister is saying that all the groups that support us across Quebec and Canada do not know what they are talking about, that he knows better than they do what is good for them, and that he does not have the money for it. He tells them to look at everything the government has already done. If everything this government has already done was really enough, I do not think that so many seniors who are currently living below or just above the poverty line would support this bill.
When seniors can have a bit left over in addition to surviving, they do not get as sick. Ultimately, health care costs less. It is cost-effective for everyone, because these people do not have a nest egg. They are going to spend that money. From an economic point of view, what the Liberals are thinking does not make any sense. However, having the Minister of Labour and Seniors speak and listening to this government's response, I understand very well that our support for this government is over. We have never had—