Mr. Speaker, Senator Jean-Claude Rivest and the former Liberal health minister, Claude Forget, warned Quebecers, not against sovereignty, but against the status quo. They fear that, should the no side win, Ottawa might play a dirty fiscal trick on Quebec, shutting the province out of international money markets.
It would appear that the drastic cuts made by the last budget to transfer payments to the provinces are only a beginning. This is not surprising. Indeed, transfer payments to Quebec were cut by more than $14 billion between 1982 and 1995.
After the failure of the 1980 referendum, Quebecers were played a dirty constitutional trick. Should they choose the status quo this time, the federal government might play a dirty fiscal trick on them. It must be said that the Prime Minister sure knows how to play dirty tricks on Quebec.