Sheila Copps

[Canadian Unity, March 20th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the extended family of the new leader of the Bloc Quebecois includes Yves Duhaime, who, obviously, with his sovereignist option received directly a total of $4.8 million before and during the referendum period for these purposes. It seems to me, that if we follow the same route as the Conseil de la souveraineté du Québec, we are acting according to the same rules as Mr. Duhaime.

[Canadian Unity, March 20th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, we followed the same route as the Conseil pour la souveraineté du Québec, which received $4.8 million from the Quebec government, but did not spend this money for referendum purposes.

[Canadian Unity, March 20th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, its existence was so secret that it appeared in the public accounts under the name Option Canada. Big secret.

But if the member wants to focus on spending, when we see the difficulties of the Quebec economy right now, we would just like to point out what was spent by the Government of Quebec in connection with the referendum: secretary for restructuring, $9.4 million; regional commissions on the future of Quebec, $8.5 million; grants to the Conseil de la souveraineté, $4.8 million; mailings to all Quebecers during the referendum, $2 to $3 million; hiring firms of lobbyists, $0.5 million; money spent by the office of the chief electoral officer, $57.8 million. This comes to a total of $82.7 million, according to Le Soleil , which published this article when the referendum was over.

So, when a government has financial difficulties and spends a minimum of $82 million on a referendum, they could have put this towards improving the economy, something Quebec really needs.

[Canadian Unity, March 20th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I would just like to stress the fact that, during the referendum, in an order in council dated October 11, 1995-and later we saw that there were other orders in council-the Government of Quebec handed over a total of $4.8 million to Yves Duhaime to promote the sovereignty of Quebec. This was by order of the Government of Quebec.

[Canadian Unity, March 20th, 1997]

And the Government of Quebec declared in this document: "Whereas the government's objective and mission is to advance the cause of Quebec's sovereignty with the people of Quebec-" This was how the government justified spending$4.8 million during the referendum on the sovereignty of Quebec.

[Canadian Unity, March 20th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the member is certainly aware of the fact that the Government of Quebec-and I have in my hand a copy of the October 11 order in council-gave a total of $4.8 million to the Conseil de la souveraineté du Québec headed by Yves Duhaime, the great friend of the new leader of the official opposition.

[Copyright, March 19th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I am shocked and surprised that the member would try to misrepresent the position of the government. The member was in the House last Thursday when we agreed collectively to extend the hours of the House so that we could complete report stage in one day, a report stage which I might add was supported by every single member of the government.

I can assure the member on behalf of the entire government that third reading will take place in a few days.

[Copyright, March 19th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member knows full well what he is saying is false.

[Copyright Act, March 17th, 1997]

moved that Bill C-32, an act to amend the Copyright Act, as amended, be concurred in at the report stage with further amendments.

[Dubbing Industry, March 13th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I was at

Telefilm Canada in Montreal, where I met executives of Telefilm to discuss various issues, including the problem facing the Canadian dubbing industry.

Before taking any action, we want to be able to co-operate closely with the Quebec Minister of Culture, Ms. Beaudoin, who has already indicated that she wants to adopt a joint policy on the subject. I believe the French minister, Mr. Douste-Blazy, will be in Quebec City on April 6 and 7. We hope that the persuasiveMs. Beaudoin will be able to infuse some logic into the French cultural policy on dubbing.