Mr. Speaker, I want to inform you that I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert.
We were told last week that the Minister of Financewould table an economic statement. The Prime Minister had triggered an election that, by the way, cost $300 million. He did this because an economic crisis was looming. He said he had to have a clear mandate to deal with the problem. The first step that the Conservative government took was to deliver an eagerly awaited economic statement. There is no doubt we have serious economic difficulties in all parts of Quebec, and especially in my own riding.
But what did they come up with? People thought there would be interesting initiatives to assist our companies and citizens, but there was nothing. It was an ideological statement. I listened to the Conservative member who spoke before me. He referred to the coalition and asked whether anyone had mentioned it during the last election campaign. What I want to know is whether any of the Conservatives mentioned anything during the campaign about denying rights to federal public servants and removing their right to strike? Did any of the Conservatives say anything during the campaign about restricting the right of women to pay equity? Did any Conservatives mention cutting the public funding of political parties? Nobody mentioned that. Now we are faced with what we are calling an ideological statement because the emphasis is on these issues rather than on the measures we expected to help our businesses and citizens ride out the recession.
The government was so blinded by ideology that it did not even realize how urgent it was to act. We need action now, right away. That is why the Prime Minister called an election. There are a lot of inconsistencies in this situation.
At a time when virtually all the governments on earth can see the need to act and are drawing up plans, our government proposes cutbacks for women, public servants and political parties. That does not make sense. It is completely out of touch. We need a different take on the difficulties we are experiencing.
I said earlier that I live in the riding I represent. Like many others, it has major economic problems. For years and years it has lived primarily off forestry and manufacturing. In Quebec we have lost, especially in the last two years, nearly half of all the jobs lost in manufacturing. The people in my region are affected by this, the people in Shawinigan, in La Tuque, and everywhere. The people in small rural municipalities, in the RCMs of des Chenaux and Mékinac, are affected as well. They are in some difficult situations. These people really expected to see some major initiatives to kick-start the economy. But no, the government preferred ideology. What it has done is create a democratic crisis for purely partisan reasons. The government decided to attack working people by suspending their right to strike and to attack women by making pay equity negotiable. That does not make sense. It is a huge step backwards, and the people of Quebec will not stand for it.
Furthermore, there is another major issue for Quebec, one that resulted in a unanimous resolution by the National Assembly. I am speaking of the creation of a single securities regulator.
In Quebec, this decision was not well received and the government cannot claim ignorance. They were told. Motions and questions about this matter were introduced. We addressed the matter often and the government knows it. It even has the unanimous resolution by the National Assembly of Quebec which reiterates its intention to oppose such a measure. Nevertheless, it was in the economic statement and that is a direct attack against Quebec.
In the throne speech given upon the opening of the House, we heard the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance ask the opposition parties for constructive suggestions to the economic crisis. We submitted a structured and organized plan, which included measures that could have allowed the government to help workers, individuals and businesses affected by the crisis. We submitted several measures that could have been used by the government but none of them were in the Minister of Finance's economic update.
How can we trust a government that asks for help and proposals but, three days later, rejects those proposals out of hand, saying that it cannot be done when we know very well that the time for action is now. Furthermore, we asked for a one-year deferral of the mandatory repayment of the HBP, Home Buyers' Plan. We know that such a measure would help young families affected by the crisis. In fact, when they withdraw funds from their RRSPs, have to repay quickly and experience financial difficulties, many of these young families have trouble making ends meet. The government could have given young families a helping hand by relaxing the rules temporarily. They could have adopted some of our proposals, but they did not.
The government did not respond to our suggestion of a development fund for affordable housing. This is the time for a government to be investing—in the middle of an economic crisis. It is the government that controls the purse strings and that can introduce measures to revitalize the economy. In Quebec we have always said that when construction is fine, so is everything else. They need to get construction going again and provide funding for affordable housing. They can kill two birds with one stone by creating housing and kick-starting the construction industry. However, these are not the measures we are seeing.
Another place they could have killed two birds with one stone is in funding for home renovations to improve energy efficiency. That would bolster the renovation industry and fight climate change. The objective would be to introduce a number of programs for homeowners who want to insulate their homes and undertake renovations that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The government would have sent out two messages at the same time. However, once again, it did nothing. It has completely forgotten that we made some interesting proposals; they are nowhere to be seen in the economic update.
As well, we talked about full respect for the equalization formula. Once again, the government came back to the House and said that the equalization formula would be amended, which would be very detrimental to Quebec.
In short, there was nothing in this update to make us trust this government. It asked us to put forward proposals, which we did in good faith, but what we realized, after hearing the minister's economic update, was that it was an ideological update that in no way helps Quebeckers or the businesses and people in Quebec's regions.
