Mr. Speaker, last week I said the following in reply to the Speech from the Throne:
These are times of crisis and our constituents are counting on us. There are times in political life, particularly in a minority Parliament, where ideology and a lack of openness are decidedly out of place.
That is what I said last week in the hope that the government would understand its responsibilities. The opposite has happened. What the Conservative government presented today was not an economic statement but an ideological statement. This ideology so blinds the government that it fails to see how urgent it is to act.
Instead of presenting a plan to help the economy recover and breathe some air into it, the Prime Minister has chosen to smother it. The Prime Minister has decided to turn his back on our companies, regions and people. The Conservative government has abdicated all its responsibilities. Worse yet, instead of attacking the economic crisis, the Conservative government has decided to attack democracy instead, as well as the rights of women and working people. The Prime Minister has preferred ideology to economics. He has placed partisanship above democracy. He has chosen to attack Quebec.
The government has created a democratic crisis out of thin air. The economy is threatened by Conservative Party ideology. Our democratic principles are under threat. The Conservative Party is a threat to the rights of women and working people, as well as to Quebec’s financial welfare. This economic statement is clearly contrary to the basic interests of Quebec. Quebeckers are watching us. How, in turn, will the members of the House be able to look Quebeckers in the eye if we fail to take decisive action to fight with all our might against the economic crisis that is descending upon us? How will the members of the House be able to look citizens in the eye if we fail to protect democracy, the rights of women and working people, and the financial situation in Quebec?
One thing is certain: all the Bloc Québécois members will be able to look Quebeckers in the eye because we will not yield on these basic principles.
All members remember that the Prime Minister chose to call an election for strictly partisan reasons. He decided to spend more than $300 million, an amount that could have been used to counter the economic crisis. Above all, the Prime Minister wasted precious time. The difference between this Conservative government and other governments throughout the world is striking. The Government of China, for example, decided to take action by putting in place a $700 billion recovery plan. Europe announced a $318 million plan. Our American neighbours have voted for a plan worth almost $850 billion. Most European countries have a deficit and yet they do not hesitate to take strong action in order to support and stimulate their economies. The American deficit has ballooned; nevertheless the government did not hesitate to take strong action to support and stimulate the economy. If governments throughout the world are acting with vigour, it is because they understand the urgency of the situation.
Despite the surpluses accumulated over 10 years, the Conservative government not only refused to present its plan, to provide relief, it consciously chose to stifle the economy to advance its outdated ideology on the reduction of government.
Naturally, we are prepared to cut our salaries and to reduce growth of expenditures by the government bureaucracy. But the purpose of these savings should not be to reduce government in order to avoid a one-time deficit, but to support the economy, to support the people.
The Prime Ministersays he has already taken action by reducing taxes, but if the actions by the Prime Minister were sufficient, how can it be that, as he himself admits, Canada will be moving into a recession, if it is not already in one?
Anyone can see that the Conservative government has no imagination, no new ideas, no serious plan for dealing with the crisis. This is the absolute opposite of the Bloc Québécois, a party that has put forward an economic recovery plan with constructive, realistic and necessary suggestions. By rejecting those suggestions, the Prime Minister has shown that he had absolutely no intention of showing any openness, of making the necessary compromises. The Prime Minister has put ideology before the economy.
We are all familiar with the Conservative party of the Prime Minister, which in reality is nothing more than the Reform Party in disguise. This statement proves it. The government has decided to take advantage of the crisis to attack the rights of women and workers. The government is proposing to suspend public servants' right to strike. It has decided to attack women's rights by submitting their right to pay equity to negotiation. Since when are rights negotiable? It is scandalous. We will never accept such an attack by the government on women's and workers' rights. We will never allow it.
Instead of being concerned about the economy, the Prime Minister has once again decided to attack Quebec. The Prime Minister declared his love of Quebec throughout the last campaign. Now we can see clearly that those declarations were not sincere. Once again he has repeated his desire to impose a federal securities commission, thereby ignoring the unanimous position of the National Assembly.
He goes still further by opening the door to a centralized pension plan in Ottawa. What is more, by capping equalization payments, the Conservative government is seriously threatening the financial situation in Quebec. According to a Toronto-Dominion Bank study, this decision could cost the Government of Quebec $450 million annually. This is called offloading one's problems on someone else. These decisions follow on the abandonment of the forestry and manufacturing industries, the abandonment of the Quebec regions, the cuts to culture and the cutbacks to economic development bodies. The Bloc Québécois will never stand for it.
Not content with putting ideology before the economy, not content with attacking workers, women, and Quebec, the Prime Minister is adding insult to injury by putting his own extreme partisanship before democracy. When speaking on December 8, 2005 about reforming the financing of political parties, the Prime Minister said:
These measures are directly inspired by reforms introduced by René Lévesque 30 years ago, reforms of which all Quebeckers can be very proud. Quebec has led the way in electoral reform.
By announcing his intention to eliminate public funding of political parties, the Prime Minister is betraying the memory of René Lévesque. Public funding was at the heart of René Lévesque's reform. This desire to slash funding is a direct attack on democracy. Using the economic crisis as an excuse and under the pretense of saving $30 million, the Conservative government has shown the world the extent of its hypocrisy.
Hardly a few weeks ago, the Prime Minister called an election for strictly partisan reasons. He spent $300 million, ten times more than what he is trying to save by eliminating political party funding. What will the Prime Minister announce next in the upcoming budget? Does he plan to shut down Parliament to save $500 million?
The Prime Minister has manufactured a democratic crisis, simply to give himself a partisan advantage, because this government's goal is to silence all forms of opposition: silence artists, silence women, silence unions and silence the opposition.
It is sad and it is unbecoming of a prime minister.
The few positive measures in this update are old, recycled measures and they fall short. The decision to purchase mortgage pools makes sense, but if the government is going to help the banks, why not impose conditions? Why not take this opportunity to set up an oversight team to ensure that small- and medium-sized businesses have access to credit?
As for RRIFs, it is not enough to reduce the mandatory withdrawal by only 25% and for only one year. The government should have raised the age limit for converting RRSPs to RRIFs to 73.
The Conservative government has put their ideology before the economy and before the people. It has attacked women's and workers' rights and it has attacked Quebec.
This update clearly goes against Quebec's values and interests, and we will categorically oppose it.
