Today I am relieved I do not have to sing the praises of this marvellous budget. I am always surprised when I listen to members opposite. They have no choice. They toe the party line and have to praise this wonderful budget, the budget of the century, as much as they can, although they know perfectly well it is just a pre-election budget.
We are not going to go back and criticize their policies in general, but I could talk about this for a long time, make no mistake. As the Bloc Quebecois critic for training, youth and literacy, I will deal with these areas, which are of particular interest to me. You know as well as I do that Bloc members maintain that these areas should be transferred to Quebec, which is in a far better position to find ways to deal with these problems. I think that is pretty clear.
I have said it often enough, but when we visit community organizations, not just in Quebec but across Canada, organizations which help poverty groups or similar groups in connection with manpower training, people say that social programs should be tailored to their needs. And these needs are often regional.
Take for instance Quebec, where in many cases, the problems are not the same in Lac-Saint-Jean and Montreal, although it is the same province. Imagine the difference between Lac-Saint-Jean and Vancouver. I cannot say this often enough. Until we have our own powers, and even when we do, I will keep fighting for sovereignty because that is the solution, more often than not. We will have all the powers we need, and we will be masters in our own house.
I would also like to comment briefly on my colleague's speech and on political party fund raising. When people say that politics is dirty or politics is fishy, I think that is very interesting. When big business can pay lobbyists to influence the government or public servants to create legislation that would be to their advantage, to the advantage of the corporations, one might well ask some serious questions about democracy.
We in Quebec have set ourselves a limit: only individuals can make contributions. Yes, it is hard to fund a political party, and I am pretty sure all my colleagues in the Bloc Quebecois agree with that, but at least this is more rational.
To return to this budget, I really like to criticize, it does not bother me in the least to do so. But on the other hand I also really like to offer solutions. The best solution I can offer, however-and I am not the first to do so-is for us to be masters of all of our own actions. That will be the first solution.
In the meantime, while waiting for 1998 or 1999 to come, we are still paying taxes to this Parliament, to this federation, so we are fully entitled to criticize, since it is our money. Before criticizing anything else, however, I would like to start by reminding you that the Bloc Quebecois has done a study on tax reform, since we know that there has been no review of the taxation system for a good number of years.
One need only think back to the Bronfman family scandal, the family trusts, other similar tax evasions. At present, there are corporations, big companies in Canada that are not paying taxes, which is scandalous. When an individual commits tax fraud, someone who may be under the poverty line, and he is arrested because we have the means of arresting him, this is easy because only a small amount is involved compared to the big companies. They may not pay their taxes, but we let them get away with it. A large corporation does not pay tax, and it is legal-that is the worst part about it-and makes huge profits. That is all quite normal.
The Bloc Quebecois has, therefore, studied the issue of tax reform, and has even had some praise from the Minister of Finance on it-I am not sure that is a compliment, but there you are. He told us that it contained some extremely interesting things, as did the personal income tax reform. We said there were ways of getting money out of businesses, but there would also be a more left-leaning approach: personal tax reform, for there are currently many situations in which single parents with two children are having a great deal of trouble surviving. Many similar situations where reform would be worthwhile could be identified. So we did this, and proposed our reform to the government.
I even brought it to Ottawa in English so that the public servants there could understand it.
I am going to take a little time over several points of this marvellous budget, which I will call a pre-election budget. I have been in politics for almost a year now-it will be a year next week-and it is still fascinating to see how politics works.
Here is one example. This year we are told: "There are no cuts, everything is dandy. The people of Canada have a fine government that will make no cuts". What you have to know, and the public will practically never know, because people have better things to do
than to hang on every political word, is that last year cuts of $4 billion were announced, to take effect this year. That is politics.
Last year, which was not a pre-election period, cuts that would hurt were announced. But they were to take effect only the following year, which was not so bad. This year, there is no mention of them. That way, they go unnoticed.
Another thing that is my responsibility is the youth employment strategy. Last year, the government released money and made a grand announcement of $285 million in spending a year. What happened? Last year they announced that they were going to spend this amount, but they did not. They waited a year.
That reminds me of the saying of an old politician. He said a bridge is worth three elections. In the first election, you announce the bridge. In the second, you announce the construction of the bridge. In the third election, you boast about having built the bridge.
This is how the present government seems to be operating. As I was saying, they announced millions of dollars last year; this year they are again boasting about making money available, but this is not the case for it was already available, except for the announcement that they have found a way of using it. They are going to use half this year and the other half next year. I am prepared to bet,Mr. Speaker, $10 if you like, that next year the government will make a lovely announcement about the youth employment strategy, telling us how they have developed wonderful programs, when the money has been available for three years. In the end, it starts to sound a lot like my bridge story.
Another thing that fascinates me is tourism. They talk about creating jobs in this budget, of additional funds, and tell us that tourism is a future niche market, that it is important to invest $15 million annually in tourism over three years. I have just one question. Will this be used to fund Attractions Canada? I cannot leave out this "attractive" tourist initiative.
Throughout Quebec right now, and I imagine this is true all the way to Vancouver, there are posters about Attractions Canada. What does it do? We do not know. It is probably a quiz or something of the sort. It is unbelievable.
I see that I have only about 30 seconds left, but there is one last thing I would like to mention. This week, weekly newspapers in my riding were carrying some wonderful advertising singing the praises of the federal system. It said that Quebec was receiving more than the other provinces.
A word to the wise. Canadian solidarity and equity are important, I agree. But when Ottawa procures only 20 per cent of goods and services in Quebec, what kind of solidarity is that? They say that 15 per cent of armed forces personnel come from Quebec, but that is almost 9 per cent less than it should be. Quebec receives16 per cent of federal investments, when it should receive 24 per cent.
I could say a great deal more, but my time is up.
