Mr. Chair, the minister says that he read the Séguin report but decided not to follow its recommendations, so how can he claim that the fiscal imbalance has been resolved for Quebec? We know that there are three primary courses of action: equalization payment reform that takes into account the revenues of all provinces; elimination of the federal spending power in areas under provincial jurisdiction; and replacing cash transfers with equivalent sales tax and income tax points.
How can he tell whether there is consensus in Quebec on these three points? To this day, the government has ignored them. How can he tell Quebec that the fiscal imbalance has been resolved?
Also, Mr. Chair, I would like you to call the member sitting next to the Minister of Finance to order because he has been goofing around for some time now.