Madam Speaker, the member for Portneuf made a speech on the costs of federalism, but he forgot that all the costs always entail benefits as well. His colleague from Saint-Hyacinthe, who sits on the finance committee, himself estimated the costs of overlap and duplication at $3 billion. Even Mr. Le Hir, the PQ minister, estimated the costs of overlap at $3 billion.
But in the magic formula, they always tend to forget one thing: Quebec receives $4 billion in equalization payments and Quebecers collect $1.2 billion in unemployment insurance.
In their bill, will they say that Quebecers must cover 25 per cent of the national debt, as the member just said, which amounts to $550 billion and the costs that it will entail? Will they tell them that milk producers will lose their protection and that it will cost all milk producers millions, if not billions, of dollars?
By chance, the member's calculations overlooked that Mr. Parizeau himself had said that all federal civil servants would keep their job and would be protected. Add that to the calculations and we get into the real debate on the costs of federalism versus the costs of separatism.