Thank you for your questions and comments, Mr. Lessard.
I agree with you that quality is not necessarily improved by these measures. Access isn't exactly a question of quality. If this program enables more people to pay university expenses, if more students attend university because there's a little more money to do so, they will attend courses with other students, and that has nothing to do with the quality of education. If I had been completely satisfied with the situation regarding universities and students, I would not have introduced this bill.
I agree that we must still provide assistance to universities, and that is one of the reasons why our government increased payments to the provinces. Is it still necessary to continue increasing those payments? Absolutely.
You referred to the cuts that were made. We've discussed that a number of times in the past. When I was elected for the first time, in 1993, the government was facing a very serious financial situation. The situation was so bad that we had to make changes. As a result of those changes, the economy and the government's financial position vastly improved. Consequently, we were able to spend in order to make improvements. We were able to make payments for drugs, for example, and for other things. We continued paying for education, health and so on. Without those efforts, the Government of Canada would have had a lot of trouble continuing at the same rate.