He said that instead of creating economic uncertainty by talking about sovereignty, we should join them. First of all, he is the one creating uncertainty by not proposing budget measures. Moody's realized that in February. Moody's understood that when it downgraded Canada's rating. We truly regret that, but the agency recognized that the Minister of Finance had demonstrated his incompetence over the past year. The minister took no appropriate action for a medium-term control of Canada's deficit and debt. He is the one creating uncertainty. He is the one who is confusing the economic situation and leading the country on the road to ruin.
So, we urge him to stop talking about uncertainty, to look in his own backyard and to ask himself what he has done in the past year as finance minister to regain control of public finances, what he has done other than to offload his deficit problems onto the provinces and plan an eventual transfer of the federal government's rating cut. These are the real questions he should have asked this morning.
Coming back to Bill C-76, the legislation maintains the national standards in the health sector, and introduces new national standards in the areas of social assistance and post-secondary education. If the provinces do not respect these standards, the federal will cut their funding as it did to the unemployed and welfare recipients, and as it is about to do to our seniors. These measures would limit the provinces' autonomy in their own jurisdiction and would apply to a sector as vital as education for Quebec's cultural identity.
The Minister of Finance proved us right this morning when he came up haphazardly, in an almost unprecedented fashion in this House, with a series of amendments which he intends to eventually table. We do not know when for the minister was so flustered that he did not tell us. But he proved us right. He told us that we were right to fear federal interference in areas which come under Quebec's exclusive jurisdiction, such as education and social assistance.
The Minister of Finance intends to eventually table amendments. We will wait for these amendments. So far, nothing is official, but the minister felt cornered. He knew that the official opposition was right, and is always right, because we are dealing with a bill. So, the minister hurriedly came up with these things in an off-hand, almost arcane manner.
Try to imagine-we are referring to Bill C-76-what it means to have Canada's English speaking majority impose education standards on Quebec. Do you have any idea of the implications? Try to imagine what it means to Quebecers, given our particular historical background.
Canada-wide standards in education would mean that Ontario, Newfoundland and Canada's English speaking majority would define, to some extent, Quebec's education system, a system which perpetuates our identity and our culture from generation to generation.
Can you imagine for a moment Clyde Wells, in Newfoundland, and his elected friends in Ottawa, his associates and accomplices, defining the content of Quebec's education system through the direct use of Canada-wide standards? Does this mean that, for post-secondary education, we would only have 25 per cent control over decisions, while being constantly blackmailed by the federal government regarding the level of transfers?
Through this bill, the finance minister and his government are pursuing two aims: first, to crush the legitimate claims of the Quebec government in its own jurisdiction, a fight that has been going on for at least 30 years; and second, to hide from people of Quebec and Canada the real situation with regard to the cuts in the transfer payments to provinces and the impact of these cuts for next year in particular but especially two years from now.
The government is seeking to hide the real situation about the budget transfers as a whole by talking about cash transfers, not tax point transfers. The Minister of Finance is confusing the population when he says that transfers will not decrease over the next few years, because he is talking about tax points and cash transfers whereas only cash transfers should be considered. That is what the federal government has under its control. That is what the federal government can use to blackmail provinces, not tax points. Even the government agrees that tax points are there to stay. They are provincial entitlements. So he mixes everything up, tax points and cash transfers, resulting in a distorted picture of reality.
Here is the reality. The financial transfers as a whole, meaning the federal cash transfers paid to the Quebec government, will decrease by 32 per cent-and this is not peanuts-from 1994-95 to 1997-98 because of the cuts in transfer payments to provinces. It is important to understand that these transfer payments are not a gift from the federal government but are taken from the $30 billion paid by Quebec taxpayers to the federal government.
I have to point out that these taxes have increased to such an extent since 1982 that it is incredible that the finance minister, who has been in charge for 16 months now, has not thought about considering the situation with regard to taxation. Since 1982, taxes paid by Quebec taxpayers to the federal government have increased by 143 per cent, whereas federal transfer payments to Quebec, cut year after year, and even more since he became finance minister, have increased by only 50 per cent.
On the one hand, taxes paid by Quebec taxpayers have increased by 143 per cent, to $30 billion at present, and on the other hand, transfer payments have increased by approximately 50 per cent over a 10 year period. That is the situation. It is tangible evidence that this system is not working. When taxes are raised so steadily while the rate of growth of transfers is being reduced, surely there is a problem somewhere, there are inefficiencies of some kind and some chronic malfunction in the system.
In the coming year alone, cuts announced in the last budget of the Minister of Finance will result in losses in revenues of $1 billion for Quebec. The direct impact of transfer cuts amounts to $650 million and the indirect impact, to $450 million. In 1997, the shortfall resulting from the federal budget will stand at $2.4 billion.
When we see such things, when we realize the federal government wants to quell legitimate aspirations of the Quebec government and that, at the same time, it is trying to hurt the Quebec fiscal situation and make it even more difficult for the Quebec government to prepare its next budget, we see the Minister of Finance for what he really is. His lack of responsibility becomes obvious. We see his centralist views, that are encouraged by his Prime Minister who took part in all struggles against Quebec during his whole political life. We now see the truth.
Through the motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition and the Bloc Quebecois, we want to restore some order so that the government will not get away as easily as it would have liked to with the shameful measures it took and the almost unprecedented attacks it launched, without warning, against Quebec and its jurisdiction.