Mr. Speaker, I wish to thank the hon. member for his excellent speech. I think he takes the interests of the Quebec transportation industry at heart, and he represents them well.
I would like him to touch on the possible implications of these cuts in transfer payments to the provinces, which the Minister of Finance indicated will be to the tune of $7 billion over the next three years. Transfer cuts mean less money being paid to Quebec. At the same time, the federal government continues to tax Quebec at the same level. Moreover, tax hikes are imposed on Quebecers, representing a deficit of about $6.5 billion for Quebec in taxes alone. Add to that some $2.5 billion less coming back to Quebec every year, and this makes a shortfall of $9 billion for the people of Quebec.
Instead of cutting taxes in Quebec, the federal government is cutting the share Quebec used to get. This makes for a rather significant shortfall, in fact a very significant shortfall for Quebecers. How can this be offset? As the Minister of Finance said, Quebec will have to either reduce public expenditures further or impose tax hikes Quebec taxpayers who are not only seeing their taxes go up instead of down, but receiving about $2.5 billion less from the federal government every year, which is utterly unfair. It is important that the people of Quebec be reminded over and over again of this fact.
How does the transport critic see the transportation industry in Quebec being affected by this drastic drop in overall revenue?