Yes, Mr. Speaker, Rome is burning. They used to talk about the "beau risque". Now it is a "beau virage", and today, we have this separatist mirage Quebecers are being asked to embrace, but no one is really interested.
That is why I said that Rome is burning, or rather that Nero is fiddling instead of dealing with the real problems in our society.
The hon. member said that the federal government just happened to leave out equalization, because equalization always benefits Quebec. But if we include equalization, the tax burden on the province of Quebec represents only 1.4 per cent of their total revenue. That is their tax burden: $350 million. But when we talk about money, it is always the same money and the same taxpayer.
The municipal government takes it out of your left-hand pocket, the federal government takes it out of both pockets and the provincial government takes it out of your right-hand pocket, but the pockets all belong to the same taxpayer. Yes, some responsibilities have been passed on to the provinces, but they were also allowed some flexibility. Flexibility in how they manage their programs and structure them according to their needs.
This is not a burden on the provinces. In fact, six provinces have already brought down balanced budgets. It is now up to the Province of Quebec to do likewise before the referendum.