First of all, just to be clear, the CLC has always taken the position that the FTQ speaks for Quebec workers on constitutional issues.
Second, in the paper on the fiscal imbalance it says very explicitly that a national framework for programs must recognize the need of Quebec, in particular, to control the levers of social development within its own jurisdiction. So we accept that Quebec has a particular need to develop programs within its own jurisdiction.
I'm not sure if I understood correctly that you want a transfer of tax room as a way of resolving the fiscal imbalance. At present, Quebec benefits quite significantly from having equal per capita transfers, as opposed to a transfer of tax room, just because the fiscal capacity of Quebec is below average. From a fiscal point of view, Quebec is much better off getting equal per capita transfers through the Canada social transfer, the health transfer, than through a transfer of tax room.
I absolutely agree with you that the provinces should know that federal transfers to the provinces for social programs are insecure. In the submission we call for at least a ten-year planning horizon so that provinces can count on their planning for that.
The other point I would make is that in many ways Quebec is different from other provinces. Through the 1990s, even when the federal government cut back its own social transfers quite significantly, Quebec was really the only province that maintained and increased social expenditures over that period, notably on the child care program and others. But while the federal government was cutting transfers, the Government of Ontario and the Government of Alberta were cutting provincial taxes, as opposed to making up for that room. So the experience of other provinces has been that there's a lot of political pressure to cut taxes rather than maintain social programs. The dynamic in Quebec has been different for that.
We are prepared to recognize that Quebec is different on many dimensions. But I think you're unwise to push for a transfer of tax room as a way of addressing the fiscal imbalance issue.