Mr. Speaker, the first reason why the Mathews study, which was kept secret by the Quebec government, is so embarrassing to the Parti Quebecois is that it shows that, in recent years, Quebecers provided 21 per cent of federal revenues, while accounting for 24 per cent of total federal expenditures. This clearly contradicts the claims made by the Parti Quebecois and the Bloc Quebecois.
Second, the study shows that the deficit resulting from the transition would be much higher than indicated in previous studies. The PQ government has always tried to hide the transition costs and that study shows what these costs would be.