Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to the minister, earlier, say things that are not totally true. He was talking in a lyrical way, but very cynically, of his vision of Canadian regional development.
The truth is that his government is against regional development. His government has just cut, through its budget, $5.5 billion in the unemployment insurance fund. At the hearings of the sub-committee on Bill C-17, which is the piece of legislation that cuts unemployment insurance, people from the Maritimes came to tell this government, the members of the government, that it was on the wrong track. These people were desperate, because they were being cut left and right where they should not be cut.
That is the government's vision of regional development, to totally destabilize communities, particularly rural communities. The federal government should stop trying to make us cry with the millions of dollars that it sprinkles over Quebec. In case you did not know it, we pay $28 billion in taxes every year. So, those millions are no gift. The government should undertake a complete assessment of federal transfers, instead of looking only at what suits it. For the last five years or so, we have been the losers in these tax transfers, given what we are paying and what we are receiving.
So, the government should stop making us cry with arguments that are senseless, and most of all, demagogic arguments coming from a minister who is always demagogic anyway. The government should stop praising the phantom of the opera, Mr. Trudeau.
Mr. Trudeau spat on Quebec's aspirations, and if you are proud of having been part of his government, that is too bad for you. That will just make things clearer for Quebecers. So, is that your vision of regional development, to completely destabilize rural communities of the Maritimes and of Quebec with such a despicable, outrageous and hated bill as Bill C-17? I ask the question to the minister.