Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Saint-Denis for her question. My colleague spoke of myths. She said we were perpetuating myths. I would like to tell her that the biggest myth circulating in Quebec and in Canada is the one about centralizing federalism as practised in Canada for the last 30 years, during 20 of which the Liberals were in power. That is the biggest myth.
The Government of Quebec is having difficulties because the federal government is offloading its deficit onto the backs of the provinces.
Let us take the example of research and development. Over the last ten years or so, Quebec has received approximately 17 per cent of federal research and development grants, while the neighbouring province of Ontario has received 50 per cent. Historically, the federal government has always put less money into economy building measures.
What Quebecers want is not just transfer payments to help subsidize welfare and assistance to the less fortunate members of society. What they want from the federal government is spending that will have an impact on the economy, such as Ontario has seen for ten years or so. Historically, Quebec has never received its fair share.
When there are massive cuts by the federal government in transfer payments, such as we are now experiencing, Quebec is more severely affected than Ontario or other provinces. The federal government has not put money where it would have allowed Quebec to have proportionately fewer people living in poverty. When this kind of spending is cut, people are hard hit.
Finally, the flexible federalism, the decentralized federalism we keep hearing about from the Prime Minister and the federal government is always based on a double standard. If this is the kind of distinct society the Liberal government wants to talk to us about, we are not interested.
Take the case of the GST. The maritimes received $1 billion in compensation for harmonizing with the GST. Quebec did the same thing in 1991 without a cent of compensation, when it should have received approximately $1.9 billion. If that is what they mean by distinct society, treating Quebec differently where taxes are involved, I can understand that Quebecers are increasingly considering sovereignty.
I would also like to tell the member for Saint-Denis that what the Bloc Quebecois most dislikes about the Minister of Finance's budget is its scattershot approach. The amounts involved are small, a few million dollars, and they have been ladled out all over the place. Rather than watering down the impact of the $1 billion available in the 1997 budget, why did they not target one or two specific areas in order to produce a bigger bang in terms of jobs and wealth?