Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance recently stated in the House that the Reform budget "had reductions in transfer payments to the provinces that made ours look like a peanut hill. They were enormous". This statement is false.
The Reform Party had proposed a cut of $3.5 billion in provincial transfers for health, welfare and higher education and $3 billion in equalization payments. The Liberal budget projects a cut of $7 billion on social program transfers. The Liberal budget exceeds the Reform cuts by $500 million.
I ask the minister: where is the peanut hill? Why these misrepresentations? Is it lack of information, carelessness or a deliberate political tactic?