Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Western Arctic for her excellent speech, and especially for what she said about the men, women and children of Davis Inlet.
You may be assured that my colleagues and I-as we and as the hon. member for Lac-Saint-Jean mentioned last week-will make a concerted effort to expedite the kind of action that is necessary to deal with the sad plight of this community, as reported on Le Point last week.
However, I am less inclined to agree with what the hon. member said about the speech by the Leader of the Official Opposition and member for Lac-Saint-Jean, when she commented on his and the Bloc's demands in terms of managing manpower training and unemployment insurance.
These are not the demands of our members but of the people who reside in Quebec and have made those demands since 1988. This is especially true since the creation of what we in Quebec refer to as the forum on employment. Participants include representatives from all parts of the political spectrum, including Ghyslain Dufour, Gérald Larose, and others; and there is a consensus on patriating all components connected with the labour market.
My second comment, and I will be very brief. When the hon. member referred to the surplus Quebec received under the federal system, I would say we have a surplus on some items but a deficit on others. On the whole, since 1988 Quebecers paid $28 billion in taxes to the federal Treasury and got back more or less what they put in.
However, as far as equalization payments are concerned, it is true we have a surplus. I will tell you why: we are the province with the highest percentage of poor families. In other words, 16.2 per cent of low-income families live in Quebec. We rank first, followed by Newfoundland, so it is only fair we should have more in the way of equalization. The same applies to unemployment and welfare. Basically, the federal system prevents us from getting out of the poverty cycle, and Quebecers are fed up with transfer payments and welfare.
Finally, we have to compare this surplus with what we lost during the past thirty years in terms of research and development, transportation, agriculture, and so forth. The real figures are there. Ask your officials to redo those calculations with their net surplus of $200 for each Quebecer.