Marcel Massé

[Division No. 103, March 17th, 1998]

moved that the bill be concurred in.

[Division No. 103, March 17th, 1998]

Mr. Chairman, the form of the bill is the same as those passed in previous years.

[Division No. 103, March 17th, 1998]

moved that the bill be read the second time and referred to committee of the whole.

[Division No. 103, March 17th, 1998]

moved that Bill C-33, an act for granting to Her Majesty certain sums of money for the Public Service for the financial year ending March 31, 1998, be read the first time.

(Motion deemed adopted and bill read the first time)

[Division No. 102, March 17th, 1998]

moved:

That Supplementary Estimates (B) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1998, be concurred in.

[Semaine Nationale De La Francophonie, March 16th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt that the way provinces treat their linguistic minorities must reflect the obligations that the federal government has itself undertaken to fulfil vis-à-vis minority linguistic groups in each province.

In Quebec, the anglophone minority is usually very well treated. I think that this is recognized by everyone. In all the other provinces, the federal government is fulfilling its responsibility of also providing francophone minorities with the excellent treatment they are entitled to expect.

[Semaine Nationale De La Francophonie, March 16th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I must say we are very proud to celebrate the Semaine nationale de la francophonie. It emphasizes the dualistic nature of Canada and the fact that we have two official languages, a fact of which we are proud and which is part of our national identity. I thank my opposition colleague for pointing this out.

The Treasury Board has adopted a series of measures to enable the federal government to respond and provide service to clients in both official languages, and we are going to try to perform this duty more effectively in the future.

[Year 2000, March 13th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the federal government is sparing no efforts to ensure that we meet our year 2000 requirement.

There is a special office in Treasury Board that has been set up in order to ensure that the public sector is able to meet the requirements of the year 2000. We have established teams in every one of the departments. We recently gave contracts that could go up to $1.4 billion in order to get the specialists we need to deal with that problem in good time.

[Regional Development, March 13th, 1998]

This is a concern to us because, naturally, like the provinces, we want the steadiest and most effective economic development possible.

In this case, the jurisdiction is shared by both levels of government, each having its own responsibilities. Hopefully the Government of Quebec will fulfil its responsibilities properly, and we will fulfil ours properly.

[Federal Public Service, March 13th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, before reaching an agreement with the auditors union, we carried out market studies to compare public service pay levels with various other areas in Canada. We are paying equal or better than most, and the collective agreement reflects the information available to us.