Mr. Speaker, I must say I was very surprised to hear the hon. member for Vaudreuil accuse the official opposition of playing the fiddle while Rome burns. The question is, who started the fire in the first place? The hon. member for Vaudreuil should have listened to the Leader of the Opposition when he said that what is happening in Canada today reminds us of the arsonist who blamed the firefighters for doing a bad job, because these fires have been burning for a long time in Canada.
When we realize that for the past 12 years, the Canadian government has cut transfer payments to Quebec by a total of $14.4 billion, which means more than one billion annually, is it any wonder this would have an impact on the public finances of the Government of Quebec? This year, the federal government maintained this trend by cutting another billion. Next year-not this year, because of the referendum campaign but next year-it will be $2.4 billion, reflecting the government's increasingly devious plans to make cuts at the expense of low wage earners.
I want to commend the hon. member for Mercier on her excellent and very instructive speech in which she explained that the unemployment insurance fund does not belong to the federal government. It consists of the premiums paid by workers and employers, but the federal government is appropriating this money, so that after bringing the provinces, including Quebec, to their knees, it can then say: If you do not have enough money for your social programs, we do, thanks to the way we managed these funds which do not belong to us-the unemployment insurance premiums paid by workers and their employers.
I would like to ask the hon. member for Vaudreuil what he thinks about all this, what he thinks about the announcement in the budget speech which was mentioned by the Leader of the Opposition and what he thinks about this committee that is looking into the administration of old age pensions, to increase them, of course.