Stéphane Dion

[Millennium Scholarships, March 19th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, let us not forget that, from 1993-94 to this day, the Government of Canada has cut its own expenditures by nearly 11% and its transfers to the provinces by 7.4%.

Second, five of the ten provinces have surpluses and the others have deficits that are quite acceptable, except Ontario, which chose to reduce its taxes by $5 billion—we have nothing to do with this—and Quebec, which took a year to hold a referendum and another year to recover from it.

[Millennium Scholarships, March 19th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I hope the Quebec government does not intend to do that because the objective is for both governments to work together to help students.

[Education, March 13th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, it is vital in this federation, which is highly decentralized compared to all the other federations in the world, to not lose sight of Canada's great diversity, including the unique character of Quebec society, which created a sophisticated grants program, with the assistance of the federal government.

I have to point out that a quarter of the provincial funds given to students right now come from the federal government, and we will continue to ensure respect for diversity in our efforts to help students across the country, including in Quebec.

[Education, March 13th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada does not meddle in education. Financial help for students is a responsibility of the two levels of government. The federal responsibility dates from the turn of the century. I found a program in this regard at the beginning of the century. So this is nothing new.

What is new is the huge challenge we face, the challenge of the knowledge economy and the need to prepare people to meet it. This means that the two levels of government must work together and avoid squabbles. It is certainly a priority of the federal government to work with all governments, including—

[Calgary Declaration, February 24th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, here are the results of a December 8, 1997 Angus Reid poll.

“The Canadian Constitution should recognize the unique character of Quebec society”; in Quebec, 85% agreed with the statement.

“It is desirable for the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to recognize the unique character of Quebec, while affirming the principle of provincial equality”; 80% agreed.

“It is possible to reform the Canadian federation on the basis of these two principles”; 69% agreed.

Environics, October 1997: Would you say you support what the premiers have proposed? Support, 61% in Quebec. Opposed, 39% in Quebec.

[Millennium Fund, February 24th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, education is a provincial responsibility and the Government of Canada is not interfering in education.

Financial assistance to students has been a shared responsibility for a very long time now, and many of us here in the House have benefited from it. There is therefore nothing new in this.

In order to improve Canada's competitiveness, the two levels of government must work together and that is what we will do.

[Quebec, February 23rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I must inform my hon. colleague that according to all the information we have, including polls, the Calgary declaration is strongly supported in Quebec.

[Quebec, February 23rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, a huge amount of legal issues would be at stake in the negotiation of secession. This is one.

We asked the court what it thinks is the fundamental one, the first one, if the actual secession has legal support, yes or no. We are awaiting the answer which we will respect in either case.

[Reference To Supreme Court, February 20th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, notice how carefully the Bloc Quebecois always avoids getting too deeply into an issue it finds extremely embarrassing.

As a Quebecker, I do not want to see my society plunged into a situation where a government would act outside the law and ask us as citizens to obey its laws anyway. No democratic society has ever been subjected to such a situation and that is why we need to go through this exercise of clarification regarding the plan to unilaterally secede hatched by a government, by a party that does not believe in the rule of law and democracy for everyone.

[Reference To Supreme Court, February 20th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the attorney general has issued a statement. Now, speaking of clear answers, the Bloc has some answering to do.

Does the PQ government have a legal right to be considered an independent government just because it declares itself to be one? Will citizens be legally obliged to obey this self-proclaimed government of an independent state? Are governments obliged to recognize it as a legally independent government?

We are waiting to hear what the Bloc has to say, when it has finished with all its sound and fury and proclamations to cover up the fact that it does not have an argument to stand on.