"THE JUST FEDERATION"

OTTAWA, ONTARIO, April 21, 1997 – Speaking today to the members of the Chambre de commerce de Trois-Rivières, the President of the Privy Council and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, the Honourable Stéphane Dion, expressed more or less the same ideas he covered in Calgary on April 4, noting that "It is important for Canadian unity to say the same thing everywhere in the country, and I am prepared to demonstrate throughout the country that Canada is a just federation, as much for Quebecers as for Albertans."

Minister Dion directly addressed the grievances expressed by Reform Party MPs, who present Quebec as a spoiled child, and by Bloc MPs, who depict Quebec as a systematic victim of "injustices by the federal government", and responded to the arguments made by each side.

"While some of the claims by the West and Quebec may be founded," the Minister stressed, "no one is being picked on, and Quebecers are neither the victims nor the spoiled brats of the federation. In either case, interregional jealousies are taking up too much room in our debates about fairness."

Referring to the Reform Party’s arguments, Mr. Dion responded that the Government of Canada is not neglecting the interests of Alberta or British Columbia, despite what Mr. Manning is implying. The Minister specified that Western Canada has long benefitted from many regional development measures, and that British Columbia and Alberta were the first two provinces to receive funding under the Fiscal Stabilization Program. Various federal government initiatives have benefitted and still benefit the Western provinces, whether they are in the form of tax relief, multilateral trade negotiations, or otherwise.

Responding to the Bloc, Minister Dion addressed the grievances outlined in the working document of the Bloc’s 1997 Congress, entitled Ensemble le défi, ça nous réussit. That document tries to show that, over the past three decades, the federal government has taken a number of decisions which have had negative repercussions on the Quebec economy, and that the distribution of federal government spending is unfair to Quebec.

Stéphane Dion took on the arguments in the document one by one, demonstrating with facts and figures that "the claims of unfairness by the Bloc leaders are inconsistent and, more often than not, are based on partial data which serve the separatist interests they are defending."

The Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs described as illogical the Bloc’s line of reasoning, under which "fair share" must always be equal to each province’s demographic weight. "According to that logic," the Minister said, "we should give Saskatchewan, for example, the equivalent of its demographic weight in fisheries spending!"

"I hope there will never be an Ontario Bloc or a Bloc from any other province in the House of Commons. I hope there will never again be another Bloc from anywhere in Canada," Mr. Dion concluded. "Canada is not an exercise in accounting. Our federation is a family of provinces, territories and populations which share the values of justice, solidarity and fairness. Quebecers are generous people. The calculating mind set of the Bloc leaders dishonours us and is not in keeping with our true values."

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For information:
André Lamarre
Press Secretary
(613) 943-1838.

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