Mr. Speaker, as we know, Quebec spent $45 million in 1992 to organize its own referendum on federal offers. Yesterday, we learned that the federal government refused to refund the $26 million, or one quarter of the total costs, the people of Quebec have contributed toward the referendum held in the nine other provinces.
All told, the cost of the referendum on the Charlottetown Accord to the Quebec taxpayers was $70 million, as compared to $80 million for the rest of Canada. Moreover, the Deputy Prime Minister was pleased to hear this yesterday. She said that separation is expensive.
Unfortunately, Quebec is not a sovereign state yet and the Quebec taxpayers have paid three times as much as those from the other Canadian provinces for the referendum that buried any hope of federal renewal to be held. It was expensive indeed just to find out that federalism equals status quo.