Madam Speaker, the member thought he could get away with it, but it will not be that easy.
According to him, this government, of which he is a member, has done a very good job of managing public finances. This is questionable to say the least. I hope the hon. member will rise. I know he always speaks the truth but the problem is he does not always tell the whole truth.
This opposition day should allow those who are listening to understand that this government has helped destabilize other governments' finances. How can anyone find it acceptable that, year after year since 1993, provinces have accumulated a short-fall of $42 billion in services that they have become unable to provide to the public?
The hon. member, who is parliamentary secretary—I know he would like to be minister but for the time being he is only parliamentary secretary—says they had no choice but to cut. They had no choice but to put their fiscal house in order.
We agree on the first part, but we do not understand why this government did it by transferring responsibility to the provinces. Will the hon. member not admit that this is a rather dishonest way to do things? The situation is this: by cutting $42 billion in provincial transfers, this government has forced the provinces to face difficulties they had not anticipated.
Will the hon. member admit that this government could have cut elsewhere, that it should have spared some sectors? Cabinet ministers should have decided to spare some sectors.
The Government of Quebec has said the same thing. You are all aware of our optimism as to the outcome of the November 30 election, but I can guarantee you that this optimism will make us work to the very end. We will take nothing for granted.
But the fact is that the hon. member could have agreed to follow the Quebec government's example and say that all social programs, all programs to fight poverty by helping people go back to work and to improve living conditions for the disadvantaged, would not be cut.
It would have been most gracious and totally appropriate on the part of this government to say: “Cuts in provincial transfers are out of the question”.
I ask the hon. member what we have been trying to find out since this morning: Can he tell us before we adjourn whether an influent member of this government will acknowledge the consensus reached in Saskatoon and immediately give some money, $2 billion, to the provinces? That is what we are waiting for.