Madam Speaker, the difficulties of the province of Quebec, and of the other provinces as well, arise mainly from the fact that it has a revenue shortfall in what it was receiving from the federal government in the form of what were called transfer payments.
The cuts by the government of Quebec account for 54 percent; 54 percent of the cuts made are the result of transfer payments which are no longer coming from the federal government as they did in the past.
This is not surprising. It is as if, in a family budget, one parent required the other to clothe the children, but cut his or her budget in half at the same time. So something would have to be cut somewhere. Then, when the other parent is unable to meet the children's needs, the first one comes along to say “I will get you some fancy shoes and clothes, a nice hat, a nice dress”. So, of course, one of the two parents comes out looking good, but he or she has done this with the other's money, because only one of them has had to make any sacrifices.
What did this federal government, which was supposed to be cutting departmental spending by 19%, do? The fact is it has cut spending by only 9%. That is barely half as much as promised.
Instead of making the sacrifices it was supposed to make to reduce its deficit, the federal government had the provinces make them, asking that they do without the funding they used to receive from the federal government in the form of transfer payments. The government asked them to do without so it would not have to do without too much itself and have fewer cuts to make. No wonder the provinces are experiencing difficulties now and having to make cuts.
See what is going to happen. As one of my colleagues pointed out earlier, Mr. Massé made a statement to that effect. At a time when the provinces are experiencing difficulties, the federal government is blessed with a better than expected income and is about to start playing Santa Claus again because there is a provincial election coming in Quebec, and because that election will be followed by a referendum. To have the taxpayers believe that their future, comfort and security depends on it, the federal government will try to start investing again in health, education and social assistance, all of which are areas under provincial jurisdiction.
That is what the federal government will do. Every time the provinces put their fiscal house in order, the federal government steps in. The government is responsible for every deficit in the past 30 years. The provinces also had deficits, but the federal government failed to play its role properly. That is why today we are speaking in favour of the motion put forward by the Reform Party.
We do not necessarily agree with everything the Reform Party said on this issue, but we agree with the principle of distributing surpluses, because we want them to be distributed differently and, on that basis, we will give our support.