Mr. Speaker, Quebecers now know what to expect from Ottawa in this referendum year.
Far from proposing a decentralisation of powers, yesterday's budget shows that Ottawa still refuses to retreat from areas of provincial jurisdiction. In fact, Ottawa seems determined to step up its interventions, particularly in the area of job training.
The only thing the federal government has transferred to the provinces is the deficit. With yesterday's budget the federal government has tried to shift the burden of the deficit to the provinces: $2.5 billion next year, $4.5 billion the year after.
The federal government wants to delay until after the Quebec referendum the bulk of the cuts in transfers to the provinces and in federal services to the public. That would be the real cost of a "no" in the referendum, the real cost of the status quo.