Minister, even with the September 2004 health accord, the additional $ 385 million equalization payment and other small agreements that have been entered into over the past year-and-a-half, there is still, as far as the fiscal imbalance is concerned, a shortfall of between 10 or $12 billion per year. Consequently, it cannot be said that the pressure has disappeared.
If you are telling me that the fiscal imbalance can be corrected simply by keeping the provinces better informed about the status of public funding, I must tell you that I do not agree. During the election campaign, you made a commitment to correct the fiscal imbalance. You repeated these words in the budget. Moreover, this is why we supported the budget. Given that there were no measures to reform employment insurance or the program for older worker assistance, we would not have hesitated to vote against your bill were it not for this.
Now you appear to be minimizing the problem. Indeed, how much money do you estimate it will take to correct the pan-Canadian fiscal imbalance? I would like you to give us an idea of the magnitude.