Mr. Paquette, the Bloc Québécois House leader, asked the two ministers a question when they were here. He felt that the documents that had been sent to us, despite the fact that they contained a few additional details about some bills, failed to comply with the requests that Parliament had made. Mr. Paquette asked the ministers what they were prepared to offer, what else they had and what suggestions or proposals they could make to try to accommodate our requests more fully. They remained silent. They consider that they have provided us all that they can provide.
This morning, I pointed out to the minister that two bills specifically came to my attention because there are no figures about the financial implications for the provinces. It is difficult for members, especially for those of us who represent Quebec, to make do with knowing nothing about any tax burden that is going to be offloaded onto the provinces, and about any negotiations between the feds and Quebec. What will the feds have to add to the budget to compensate Quebec for what it will cost us after the bill goes into effect? A lot of people around this table, myself included, find the lack of any response to be unacceptable and, as a result, it does not provide what we asked for.
We are in a kind of dead end, Dr. Franks. One part of the government is 100% convinced that it has given us everything required and yet, since yesterday, we on this side really and truly feel the opposite. It is a kind of a stalemate.