Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his questions. I have a great deal of respect for the work that he does in Parliament. We have had discussions. I think he should drop this bit about sovereignty because he knows that Canada is a great place and I know he feels that fundamentally.
My colleague has asked me two questions. On the one hand, he has raised a concern about debt downloading to the provinces, that there are cuts in the transfers. I have to say to him that I am concerned about the cuts to transfers. The province of Quebec is much more able to withstand those types of cuts in transfers than places like Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
In New Brunswick and Nova Scotia the provincial ministers of finance said the number one wish they had on their wish list going into this budget was not that they did not have their transfers cut, but that the federal government come up with a credible plan for getting its finances in order. If that was not done it would have a major negative impact on the stability of the dollar and interest rates. Every province in the country is individually financing a debt. Their number one priority was to have some credibility from the Minister of Finance.
On transfers to the provinces we cut them by 4.4 per cent. That seems like a lot of money. It is 3 per cent of the revenue of the provinces. However, we cut our own programs, the ones we take credit or blame for, by 7.3 per cent. We cut ourselves more than we cut other people.
With respect to the second question about the debt being too high, I agree with him 100 per cent. However, I do not agree with members of the Reform Party that it is a debt monster and that we should dance to their tune.
We have tried to recognize that the debt is too high but that in order to control the debt we must control the deficit first. We are not prepared to sacrifice that fundamental nature of Canada to satisfy those on the far right, the ones who are off the mat. We are not prepared to go in and sacrifice ourselves to the big debt demon, as the former member said, by slashing programs and dismantling those things that are fundamental to the nature of the country.
I would think the hon. member opposite in a quiet moment would reflect on what we have done. We have probably created another good argument as to why Quebecers would want to stay in Canada. At this point in time, for the first time I might add in a long time, Quebecers just like Nova Scotians have a government in Ottawa that says what it means and when it says something it does it.