Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. This is not the first discussion of duplication.
It is true, the Office des personnes handicapées du Québec is to be found in my riding. Rather than take into account what is
happening in each province and the programs each has set up, as I was mentioning earlier, the federal government steps up with its spending power and, in the name of good government, says: "There seems to be a problem with seniors-or with people who have a handicap". And it assuages its conscience by putting money into a program, setting up a program that already exists in some provinces.
Why not support the programs the provinces have already set up? The provinces know the health care requirements in each of their regions. After needs have been assessed, programs are set up to help people, with the help of experts in health care. Seeing that the program is running well, the government, as I mentioned earlier, injects money into the program to justify itself and to assuage its conscience.
And if it is such a good government, why does it not support these programs by paying subsidies instead of cutting transfer payments, instead of tightening things up, instead of dumping its deficit onto the provinces and cutting transfer payments?