Mr. Speaker, I would first like to thank the member for Joliette for his excellent speech.
I would also like to mention the excellent speech we enjoyed yesterday by the Premier of Quebec, Lucien Bouchard, who has really decided to slash spending and resolve Quebec's deficit problems. Mr. Bouchard said as well that the deficit and the accumulated debt in Quebec represented roughly 18 per cent of Quebecers' costs. Federally, the figure will be 50 per cent next year.
We should perhaps explain more clearly what this means. I would ask the member for Joliette to do so in his response. Federally, it means that only 50 per cent of the money we give to the federal government will come back to us in services.