Mr. Speaker, before I answer the question put by the Leader of the Opposition, I would like to say that we are sorry to see him go. We enjoyed the past two years during which he was Leader of the Opposition. In politics, there is a certain amount of confrontation, but there are also moments that we appreciate.
I wish him good luck, and if, as he said in his speech in Laval, he intends to work hard to get the economy going and put public finances on a sound footing, we will be there, ready to co-operate. So I wish him good luck in that respect. If the other agenda predominates, there will again be confrontation. As for the question put by the Leader of the Opposition concerning tax points, it is a matter of one type of transfer rather than another. The amount is exactly the same.
However, for the purposes of public administration and to ensure that people know the money is transferred from the central government to the provincial governments, I think the Minister of Finance is right. People are aware of this in the case of a transfer payment, as opposed to tax points. In the case of tax points, people tend to forget. After a few years, they forget that no more funds are transferred, but that the federal government has withdrawn and lets the province collect taxes.
As a result, the central government's participation becomes invisible. I think the Minister of Finance wants all citizens in every province to know exactly what the federal government contributes towards the cost of administering social programs.