Mr. Speaker, in the report by the finance committee's Liberal majority, we learn that, with the limited budgetary flexibility now available to it, the federal government could, at the suggestion of its members, provide assistance primarily to the disadvantaged and to students through measures that will cost it less than $2 billion in total.
My question is for the Prime Minister or the Minister of Finance. Will the Prime Minister, or the Minister of Finance, admit, and furthermore, could they inform members of their caucus, that if the government has $2 billion to play around with today, it is first and foremost because it has cut social transfer payments to the provinces by almost $5 billion over two years?