Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his comments and his question. I would have thought that the first thing he would have done was to explain why the leader of his party quoted only half a paragraph.
It troubled me. If the whole paragraph had been quoted, it would have been obvious that that section deals with trying to meet the needs of all provinces, including Quebec. This worries me a little.
He chose to remain silent, so bet it. But I was also surprised to realize that the hon. member is incredibly pessimistic. Since the budget speech yesterday, we hear all sorts of comments everywhere. The only people opposed are members of the opposition parties. I thought such pessimism was exclusive to Reform members, but I see that it is contagious and that Bloc members have caught it. How unfortunate.
How can the hon. member say that the $700 million to which nearly $500 million has been added, totalling $1,2 billion, does not provide significant help for students? This is really sad.
Moreover, as far as cash transfers are concerned, there is a figure of $25 billion, that will be increased to more than $27 billion. That is a lot of money.
Really, the hon. member looked at only a line or two on one page, and he is using that as the whole basis for his argument. One must look at the whole picture. Optimism and understanding are in order.