Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to the speech of the hon. member and I am somewhat surprised by his paternalistic attitude regarding the claims that are being made.
The claims made by the Quebec government at this stage are about adjustment and correspondence to criteria and things of that nature. We are not here to question the way governments have acted. In that regard, I think that the hon. member's attitude was more or less appropriate when he asked if the gouvernment had acted in a relevant way and when he suggested it should act in such and such a way in another situation.
However, as regards fiscal stabilization, I believe this raises an important substantive issue. We are told that the Quebec government should go to the courts since it received an unqualified refusal from the finance minister. Should we not question the relevancy of a fiscal stabilization agreement in which the federal government is both judge and judged? Indeed, the government will give the money if the claim is considered justified, but the government is also, through the finance minister, the final authority allowing the disbursement.
Should such an agreement not be considered as a form of domineering federalism where the father decides what is good for his children? As if the provinces were the children of the federal government. Should we not ask ourselves something?
Should there not be, for this type of agreement, an independent body which could decide on the relevancy of claims in cases of disagreement between the federal and provincial governments? This way governments could be spared legal battles which entail useless expenses and necessarily lead to political claims, like the ones the Quebec government is making, when one of the parties involved refuses to agree to a claim considered to be justified by the Quebec government.