The minister tells us that as far as the $2.2 billion over a three year period is concerned, there is some uncertainty, since the $4.5 billion that will be cut in the third year will have to be distributed among the provinces, after negotiations with the federal government.
If there is any uncertainty, and in fact there is not, since the technical document published by the Department of Human Resources Development says this will be done on a per capita basis, and the minister says, on page 17 of the budget speech, that he will apply the same criterion-if there is any uncertainty, then it should be cleared up.
Yesterday and again today, the minister said that he was ready to meet the provinces the very next day. Perhaps the minister would like to tell us whether he agrees the provinces should be summoned immediately to a formal federal-provincial conference, where he would clarify the issues and tell us what the repercussions will be for Quebec?