Right Hon. Brian Mulroney (Prime Minister):

Mr. Speaker, when I see the spectacle that is going on in front of me, I should remind all of the people over there that one thing the Canadian people cannot stand is a lovers' quarrel in public.

Hear, hear!

Mr. Mulroney:

You have got along all these years; don't spoil it now.

Our commitment, the pursuit of equality for women, is at the top of our legislative and governmental priorities. I can assure the Hon. Member that we shall be acting on many fronts to satisfy the very legitimate request of all Canadian women that fairness and equality of opportunity be theirs.

Hear, hear!

Hon. Edward Broadbent (Oshawa):

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has spent most of the period since September 4 reading the former Prime Minister's answers to questions. I warn him, because he saw what happened to the guy on my right, and to his predecessor, that he will not be around for nearly the same period of time unless he changes his approach.

I want to ask the Prime Minister this question because he is both Prime Minister and a lawyer of considerable reputation. He knows that Section 19 of the Human Rights Act will permit the Government of Canada, without making a study and without bringing legislation before the House, actually to implement the promises made in regard to equality for women. If he believes, as he said in the NAC debate, as he said in British Columbia, and as he said in Toronto during the summer of 1984, that his Government will act on equality, why does he not use the Human Rights Act, consider the unequal state in which Canadian women have been living for decades, and implement now the promises he made? We do not need more studies.

Oral Questions

Right Hon. Brian Mulroney (Prime Minister):

Mr. Speaker, in fairness I think the Hon. Member would acknowledge that the House has only been in session for some three days and that there will be an economic statement tonight which, of necessity, requires priority treatment. The priority we plan to give to equality in the status of women in a number of important areas is, I can assure the Hon. Member, at the top of our list, and there shall be effective action in those areas.

Mr. Speaker:

Given the very special relationship that exists between our countries-

I would like to draw the attention of the House to the presence in our gallery of the Prime Minister of France, His Excellency Mr. Laurent Fabius, who is accompanied by a parliamentary delegation from France.

Hear, hear!

Mr. Speaker:

Before calling the Hon. Member for Eglinton-Lawrence, may I remind the House that the purpose of Question Period is short answers and short questions.

Mr. Roland de Corneille (Eglinton-Lawrence):

Mr. Speaker, my question is addressed to the Hon. Secretary of State. First, I would like to congratulate him not only on his re-election but on his appointment to his important portfolio.

The Minister well knows that for years one of the ongoing concerns of the previous Government, and of all students and all members of faculties of institutions across the country, has been that funds transferred by the Government of Canada to the provinces for post-secondary education might have been partially, or even largely, diverted to other areas and purposes. Does the Secretary of State intend to implement the law which requires him to determine what each province actually spends in the area of post-secondary education, and report this to the House? Does the Secretary of State intend to ferret out the truth and find out where the provinces are actually spending the money given them by the federal Government which was intended to be devoted exclusively to the benefit of postsecondary education?

November 8, 1984

Oral Questions

Hon. Walter McLean (Secretary of State):

Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge the good wishes of the Hon. Member and in turn offer my congratulations to him.

The Hon. Member will recall that it was the amendment put forward by the Hon. Minister of Employment and Immigration during debate on Bill C-12 dealing with post-secondary funding which called for the responsible action in reporting of which the Hon. Member speaks.

Mr. de Corneille:

The Minister, by pointing out this fact, which I would have wanted to have mentioned if there were time-

Oh, oh!

Mr. Speaker:

No. The Hon. Member knows full well that his opportunity now is to place a supplementary question.

Mr. Roland de Corneille (Eglinton-Lawrence):

Mr. Speaker, my supplementary question is in fact addressed to the Right Hon. Prime Minister. I am sure he has been listening well to the very point the Secretary of State just mentioned. How does the Prime Minister square the views of the Secretary of State with his own when, in Chicoutimi, Quebec, in the heat of the election campaign, he said that he found repugnant the provisions of this amendment which was in fact moved by his own Minister of Employment and Immigration? He said that he found this amendment repugnant in that it required the provinces to be brought to give an account of how they spend federal funds earmarked for higher education. [Translation]

"It is a dimension of the Act which I find repugnant-"

The Prime Minister said that he wanted it changed.

Right Hon. Brian Mulroney (Prime Minister):

Mr. Speaker, it was the attitude of the former Government that I found repugnant. That was made very clear.