Benoît Sauvageau

[Asbestos Industry, April 27th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Deputy Prime Minister.

Following the recent decision of the Council of Europe to ban asbestos products, the situation is becoming increasingly difficult and the asbestos industry is asking the federal government to change its strategy.

Does the government agree that diplomacy has failed and that the time has come to file an official complaint with the WTO?

[Softwood Lumber, April 21st, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber dispute could heat up again, given the recent proposal by the U.S. customs department to modify the building lumber tariff rules.

My question is for the Minister for International Trade. As the passage of such a proposal would create a dangerous precedent for trade policy, can the minister tell us what his government is doing to protect the building lumber producers of Quebec and Canada?

[Multilateral Agreement On Investment, March 26th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the agreement provides that a sector will automatically be covered, unless it is expressly excluded.

Does the minister not think a provision like this should not be in an agreement of such importance?

[Multilateral Agreement On Investment, March 26th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister for International Trade.

International concern over the MAI is growing.

In this context, will the Minister for International Trade not recognize that this agreement concocted by the OECD, the club for rich countries, is very likely to penalize the poorest countries and that it would be better therefore to start negotiations afresh under the auspices of the World Trade Organization?

[Domus Trophy Awarded To City Of Lachenaie, March 25th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to announce that the city of Lachenaie has been awarded the Domus trophy for municipality of the year, residential sector, by the Association provinciale des constructeurs d'habitations du Québec, known as the APCHQ.

The population of this municipality, in the riding of Repentigny, has expanded from 7,000 in 1976 to its present 19,000. The Domus trophy attests to the dynamism and quality of residential development in the municipality of Lachenaie.

I wish to congratulate Mayor Marcel Therrien, the municipal councillors and the urban planning office under the direction of Guy Daoust for ensuring that their municipality develops in full harmony and with respect for the quality of life of its residents.

[Multilateral Agreement On Investment, March 23rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, will the Minister of International Trade submit his government's position on the MAI to the House for debate, as soon as possible, so that it can be discussed before it proceeds any further?

[Multilateral Agreement On Investment, March 23rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, as time goes on, more and more people are developing concerns about the eventual outcome of the clandestine negotiations on the MAI.

Even the Liberal faithful expressed concerns about it at their convention, pointing out once again the enormous implications of the negotiations.

Since the MAI will impact upon provincial jurisdictions in many ways, does the Minister of International Trade intend to call the premiers together to discuss the various aspects of the agreement before it is signed?

[Supply, March 12th, 1998]

Madam Speaker, I have a question for the member for Vaudreuil—Soulanges. He spoke eloquently about the importance of education, young people in Quebec, and so on and so forth.

He seems to have forgetten some of his history, which is still relatively recent. It goes back to 1964 when the federal government gave Quebec the option to opt out. In those days, the federal government's trust in Quebeckers, their administrators and democratically elected representatives was greater, since it allowed Quebec to have the money it wanted and which was Quebec's anyhow—it is our own tax money—to be administered in Quebec. The federal government had been trusting us since around 1964. These Liberals were elected five years ago and they have been trusting the Quebec government since then with this opting out clause under which they hand over the money to Quebec to be used for loans and bursaries.

Loans and bursaries are granted on the basis of family income. This is equal opportunity: if a family is unfortunate enough to have a low income it will not be penalized when it comes to sending its children to university or cegep because it can avail itself of the loans and bursaries program made possible in part through the opting out clause given to us by the federal government in 1964.

After 34 years of sound management and solid infrastructure put in place by the managers of the Quebec loans and bursaries program, what we are asking is for the millennium scholarship program to be transferred to Quebec under the opting out clause in order to improve our loans and bursaries program in keeping with our philosophy, which is to help Quebec students, not according to how many A 's and B 's they have on their report cards, but according to their family income, as we are doing now, giving them equal opportunity.

What we are asking regarding the millennium scholarship program is to follow the same principle we have been following for 34 years and apply the same opting out formula to the amount as before. If the position of the federal government, which knows how to spend money, is the same as the member for Bourassa, who said he did not trust Mrs. Marois and democratically elected representatives in Quebec, it should have the honesty to say so. Otherwise it should explain to us why it is questioning a formula which has been working for 34 years. This is my question to the member from Vaudreuil.

[Business Of The House, March 12th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. With all due respect, members of our party would ask that you abide by decisions made previously by other Speakers. It was no doubt an oversight on his part, but the hon. member for the Reform Party had not removed his flag. He was nonetheless recognized. This was certainly an oversight, and I wanted to point this out to you.

[Multilateral Agreement On Investment, March 12th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister for International Trade.

Yesterday, European parliamentarians stressed the need to be represented in the negotiations on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment and said that the agreement in its present form should not be signed at any cost.

Does the minister understand that the request by the European parliamentarians is the same request the Bloc Quebecois has been making for a number of weeks now? Is he prepared to submit the proposed agreement to the parliamentary committee before it is signed?