Mr. Speaker, actually, I agree with what the hon. member was saying when he described the following rather gloomy prospects for the Canadian economy: "We are headed for an economic collapse, and we are going down the steep and narrow path to national bankruptcy".
National bankruptcy is what we see looming as a result of the budget that was brought down this year. This is one of the reasons, just one but a major one, why Quebec would like to separate from Canada. Canada's budgetary and financial affairs are a mess and are leading straight down the road to disaster, to bankruptcy. This is more or less what was said by financial advisers on Wall Street.
Personally, I do not want to see the poor and the elderly in Quebec in a position where they cannot count on the support of social programs, as the hon. member pointed out. This Budget is terribly unfair to people who depend on social programs.
This Budget will cut $100 million annually in funding for social housing alone, a program that is targeted to the poorest members of our society. Single parent families, women, the elderly, people who live alone, welfare recipients: they all belong to the poorest social group in our society. This group will be affected by cuts of $100 million annually, while the banks get off scot-free or almost, with very few cuts, in fact $100 million over two years, the same Canadian banks that last year made a net profit of $4.3 billion. These cuts represent not quite 2 per cent of their net profits.
I may also add that family trusts will not pay a cent.
In concluding, I want to say that I fully sympathize with what the hon. member said, and I would like to ask him the following: If he were in Quebec, would he not agree that the best solution, at least for Quebecers, is sovereignty?