Mr. Speaker, it is always interesting to hear from the Reform Party. Depending on what day it is, some days it is tax cuts, EI and pay down debts and other days it is health care. It just depends I guess on which way the wind is blowing.
The first point I want to make concerns the reference to the 33% cut. The hon. member should come clean. If she is going to stick with a 33% cut, then in essence what she is saying is that the tax points that form part of the total entitlements to the provinces have no value.
Is the Reform Party now advocating that the provinces should in fact give back that tax room that was given to them by the federal government since in the eyes of the Reform Party it has no value and then the federal government would give that back in cash? I am not sure, but when we talk about transfers to the provinces, the tax points have to be included. They form part of that total entitlement, it is tax points in cash.
I want to illustrate that point. The hon. member is from British Columbia. No one has denied that cuts were made. Cuts had to be made. We were facing a $42 billion deficit. We cut $1.5 billion from the CHST cash transfers between 1993-94 and 1998-99 for British Columbia. Tax points grew by $1.2 billion. When that is offset, the actual cut that British Columbia experienced was some $300 million between 1993-94 and 1998-99.
If the hon. member does not want to recognize the tax points, I ask her to stand up in this House and advocate that the federal government take that room back.