Madam Speaker, I found my Liberal colleague opposite quite eloquent, in his own way. He has aptly illustrated the ambiguity and the depth of the government's strategy, which is to hide its real motives.
This is non-transparency incarnate, since it is saying one thing and doing another. It claims that this beautiful and supposedly united country is in the process of decentralizing, while in reality, what is really happening, to use the term used by the opposition and several columnists, is that the federal government is offloading under the pretext of decentralizing. It is decentralizing the fight against the deficit by foisting unprecedented cuts on the provinces.
This is obvious in Quebec. There is nothing surprising about the unfortunate closure of a certain number of hospitals when one considers that the government of Quebec has had to deal with over one billion in cuts per year, cuts made almost on the quiet, without any opportunity for discussion. Fourteen billion dollars in cuts over 12 years and now the federal government wants to sell us a form of decentralization! And these cuts are paired with the introduction of national standards. Next, it will boast that it is helping to fund such and such programs. This is downright indecent. It should at least have the guts to call a spade a spade.
I would like to ask the hon. member to once again explain how his government can justify this way of operating. It would be so simple to just respect section 93 of this country's constitution, which says that social matters, including education, fall under provincial jurisdiction, and to just divvy up the appropriate tax
points to the provinces and stay out of other people's business, which would be the constitutional way of operating.