Mr. Speaker, let us not exaggerate. We made cuts because we had to put our fiscal house in order, and we did. It was not easy, we did not enjoy doing that, but we did.
The member spoke about what she could do with $100 million for the hospitals in Quebec City. But when equalization payments go up, that is money paid to Quebec on top of all other programs and transfers. Equalization payments went up by $1 billion. That is several times $100 million.
Perhaps the member should go back to Mr. Bouchard and say “You receive $3.9 billion in equalization payments. That is more than any other province”. She should ask him what he does with that money. He can spend it on hospitals if he so chooses. We do not impose any conditions. So I hope he will at least be honest with Quebeckers and tell them how they benefit from equalization payments.
Moreover, and this bears repeating, interest rates have gone down and provincial governments have saved millions of dollars in interest payments on their debt. They are forgetting all of that. They must always remember that there is more than one department and that the Government of Canada wants to work with the provinces. We are doing everything possible to work with the provinces. We transfer significant amounts of money to them, and I hope the member will recognize that.