Mr. Speaker, what struck me in my colleague's question is that, in the spirit of the Constitution, a jurisdiction like health falls strictly under the purview of the provinces. It is unconstitutional for the federal government to intervene in the way it does, exchanging assistance for adherence to standards. From an historical perspective, this is an abuse of its power to spend. And historically, it has also always granted itself the corresponding powers to tax, and this has been going on since the end of the second world war.
This allows it to intervene today, some might argue in a responsible way, but I must say that we in Quebec have no need for this. We are stuck with the federal government, stuck with paying it $30 billion each year and stuck with its standards in areas for which Quebecers already have institutions. We have no pretensions, but we also have nothing to learn from it regarding social democracy and sound social organization principles.
This order of things may well suit the rest of Canada. We see that the Canadian government holds a larger place in the hearts of Canadians than Quebecers: our first allegiance is to the government of Quebec. Therefore, the internal logic of Canada may make a central government in Ottawa work well. That will be your decision to make in the post-referendum context. But, now, the logic of Canada contrasts with the logic of Quebec, and we ask Canada to withdraw from this kind of thing and to let the government of Quebec keep its tax points in order to administer health, all social issues and education.