Mr. Speaker, I am happy to take part in this debate on the motion introduced by the Liberals on this last supply day of the session.
I am happy to speak because I truly feel as though I am doing the job Quebeckers have asked us to do by sending a majority of Bloc Québécois members to this house since 1993. This work involves defending the interests of Quebeckers and of workers.
In the spirit of defending the interests of the workers of Quebec, the Bloc Québécois is opposed to the motion introduced by the Liberal-Conservative coalition. Let us not kid ourselves; the motion before us is the result of the deals that took place over the past few days and weeks between the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister. They simply want to ensure that the Conservative government's so-called economic action plan moves forward, and all the Liberals and the Leader of the Opposition got in return was a vague promise of EI reform and the creation of a working group, which we think is a sham. I will come back to this.
Voting in favour of this motion would mean voting in favour of this new Liberal-Conservative coalition, and would mean voting in favour of the budget that the Bloc Québécois has already voted against because it did not address the current needs of workers and the unemployed, the needs of the sectors that are currently struggling—like the forestry and manufacturing sectors—or the needs of Quebec.
Since we voted against the budget because it was not friendly to workers, Quebeckers or the unemployed, we will certainly not vote in favour of the motion being discussed today. We will not endorse the partisan manoeuvring that has been taking place over the past few hours and days. Therefore, the Bloc Québécois will vote against this motion.
If the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister had been responsible and had chosen to assist the people and to immediately respond to the needs of the unemployed, instead of trying to buy more time, we could have justified supporting this motion. However, this is absolutely not the case.
Not only did we yet again denounce the Conservative so-called economic action plan because it does not meet the needs of the people and the sectors that are suffering because of the financial crisis and the economic crisis, but we have also proposed comprehensive plans twice in the past few months, plans that included a series of proposals to meet the current needs of the economy and the population. Each time, the government and the Prime Minister dismissed our proposals out of hand without even finding out what they were.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister said that the Bloc Québécois always makes up its mind to vote against everything without even reading it. That is not at all true. I think it is important to note that, since the Bloc Québécois first arrived here in 1993, every time any bill or motion whatsoever was introduced, we considered whether it would be good for Quebec, good for people, good for workers and good for the unemployed. We did not hesitate to vote for any bill or motion that we found to be good, regardless of whether it came from the government or another opposition party.
I would note that yesterday, the Prime Minister misled the House about that. For example, we voted in favour of the Conservative government's first two budgets because we felt that they included enough transfers to Quebec to justify them even though they did not resolve the fiscal imbalance. I want to make that very clear.
What the Prime Minister said yesterday is not at all what the Bloc Québécois has done over the years. The Prime Minister, however, has shown no interest in any suggestions from the Bloc Québécois, the New Democratic Party, or the other half of the Liberal-Conservative coalition. His refusal to consider anyone else's ideas is revealing.
When just a few weeks ago the Leader of the Opposition said that an eligibility threshold of 360 hours was imperative and absolutely necessary, and that they were prepared to go into an election before the end of June if the government did not compromise on this, he was right.
So how is it that the Prime Minister announced this week that that was out of the question and that he would not change his mind in the least, that a 360-hour threshold was out of the question?
The Leader of the Opposition, however, instead of standing up for his principles, preferred to put the interests of his political party and his own interests ahead of those of the public and unemployed workers. That is completely unacceptable.
Getting back to what we proposed, I would remind the House that the proposals we have brought forward are supported by a broad consensus in Quebec. Consider the motion passed by the Quebec National Assembly on January 15, 2009, setting out the demands of the Quebec National Assembly in five points. The four parties of the National Assembly, namely, the Quebec Liberal Party, the Parti Québécois, the Action démocratique du Québec and Québec solidaire, unanimously demanded several things from the federal government.
First, they called on the government to provide assistance to workers, communities and businesses affected by the economic slowdown.
Second, they called on the government to provide financial support to sectors experiencing problems, particularly the manufacturing and forest sectors. The motion pointed out that the government was applying a double standard: very generous assistance, which we agree with, to the auto sector, located mainly in Ontario, and nothing—just crumbs and peanuts—for the forestry sector, which is very present in Quebec.
The third thing the Quebec National Assembly was asking for was improvements to the employment insurance program. And again, we have seen absolutely nothing. We have a working group, but we know that it will produce precious little.
The fourth demand of the National Assembly was that the federal government maintain the equalization program. As we know, in the most recent budget, the Minister of Finance unilaterally changed the equalization formula, which will deprive Quebec of $1 billion. The Conservatives wanted us to vote for that, even though the Quebec National Assembly was asking for something else altogether. Had we voted for it, the Bloc Québécois would have truly been flouting the mandate we have been given, and that is out of the question.
The last thing was to say no to a Canada-wide securities commission. Here, I must mention the vote again, because it is a vote by the Liberal Party. The Conservatives, as we know, are obsessed with this issue, because the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance are nothing less than the puppets of Bay Street.
The Liberals, thinking they were being clever, remained seated. They did not vote. But by abstaining in that case, they voted with the Conservatives. No one is fooled by their strategy. We are also well aware that the Liberals, who are centralists—and the history of the Liberal Party proves it—also want to create this sort of commission, which would concentrate the financial sector in Toronto at Montreal's expense. No one in Quebec is fooled. By remaining seated and abstaining, the Liberals voted with the Conservatives as part of this new Liberal-Conservative coalition and against the interests of Quebec, and we will not forget to point that out.
I would also remind this House that on the issue of language of work, French, which is the common language in Quebec and the official language of the Quebec nation, the Liberal Party and the Conservatives voted against the bill I had introduced to require that federally regulated companies operating in Quebec be subject to the Charter of the French Language, Bill 101. Once again, the Liberals and the Conservatives voted against this bill.
The motion that is before us seals the pact between the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, a coalition that has two main objectives. It takes aim against the interests of Quebec, against the interests of workers and against the interests of the unemployed, by depriving them of assistance.
I will conclude by saying that the best illustration this week of the hypocrisy of some members of this House was the statement made during question period by the member for Bourassa, the Liberals' political lieutenant in Quebec. He got all dramatic and said that amendments absolutely had to be made before the summer, or else the unemployed would starve. Now, the Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Minister and the member for Bourassa have chosen to let workers and the unemployed starve. We will not be a party to this scandal.
