Mr. Jean-Claude Malepart (Laurier-Sainte-Marie):

Mr. Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister responsible for the 7,500 VIA Rail lay-offs across Canada, of which 54 per cent will be in Quebec and 3,241 in Montreal. Those workers have a right to know the Minister's position, not only that of VIA Rail's management. Is the Minister ready now to state he asked VIA Rail's management to proceed to humane rather than wild rationalization and lay-offs, and if so how are they to implement that?

June 8, 1989

Mr. Jean-Claude Malepart (Laurier-Sainte-Marie):

Mr. Speaker, VIA Rail employees cannot be made to feel secure because the Minister in charge who should defend them is acting as a loudspeaker for VIA Rail's management. If the Minister earns $50,000 more than we do, it is because he must assume his responsibilities. And if the Minister wants to take his own responsibilities and recommend a humane rationalization, would he be ready to recommend that VIA Rail be designated under the older worker adjustment program so that the latter applies and lay-offs are done humanely, on the basis of early retirement, rather than having management do a hatchet job? Take your responsibilities, you do not rate a chauffeur just to ride around.

Mr. Jean-Claude Malepart (Laurier-Sainte-Marie):

Mr. Speaker, I should like to echo the words of Quebec Government Minister Daniel Johnson who said last Friday that the Conservative Government does not seem to be in any particular hurry to promote the Montreal East economic recovery. Mr. Johnson singled out specific cases, including the Soligaz project for which the Conservative Government still has to honour its promises made during the last election campaign. This project would entail investments of $1 billion and thousands of new jobs in Montreal East. Mr. Johnson also raked the Conservative Government over the coals for failing to give priority to the endorsement of Montreal East funding propositions to upgrade facilities and create jobs. I dare hope the new Minister responsible for the Montreal region will prove to be more efficient than his predecessor.

Mr. Malepart:

My question for the Finance Minister is this: Why does he want to let the provincial governments, the governments of provinces in the West and the Atlantic region, and the sick suffer the consequences of his incompetence?

Would the Prime Minister be prepared to do what he did in 1985 and ask his Minister of Finance to backtrack on transfer payments for health care as he did on the de-indexation of old age security pensions? Is the Prime Minister prepared to ask the Minister of Finance to restore full indexation of funding for post-secondary education and health care?

Mr. Jean-Claude Malepart (Laurier-Sainte-Marie):

Mr. Speaker, my question is directed to the Right Hon. Prime Minister.

Yesterday, when he brought down his Budget, the Quebec Finance Minister stated that as a result of cutbacks in the Tory Government's Budget, Quebec would suffer a loss of $1.3 billion over the next three years. As a result of these cutbacks, there will be 2,400 fewer spaces in daycare, a shortfall of $150 million for health care, hospital services and post-secondary education and a shortfall of $23 million for the Programme de renovation des logements.

Is the Prime Minister aware of the serious consequences of his latest Budget for all Quebecers?