Mr. Speaker, hindsight is 20:20. It would have been great four years ago to have had a crystal ball to project what could have happened.
We had to make those decisions in 1994-95 with serious repercussions for all Canadians. When it came to transfers to the provinces there is no way they could have escaped any cutbacks. It represents roughly 20% of our budget. We cut back only 3%, and I say that with respect. It was 3% of total revenues for the provinces.
If somebody said that they were going to cut back my own personal budget by 3%, I could handle that quite easily. If somebody said they were going to cut me back 20% some serious decisions would have to made.
We made difficult decisions. We went to the provinces upon their request and gave them stable funding. Today in this bill we are almost reinstating the $1.5 billion in that promise that we made three years ago.
The hon. member may say that we are only giving them back $1.5 billion in less cuts but still the provinces have $12 billion. When it comes to stable funding I do not know what law the member referred to. I presume he might be talking about stable funding for CBC, but in this legislation there is the five year commitment.
He referred to the fact that the federal government cut and cut on the backs of provinces. In my speech I indicated how some of the provinces and indeed all Canadians benefited from the difficult decisions that we had to make. I gave a concrete example in my home province. Because of its heavy debt financing it was able to save $645 million in its debt service alone.
The member's home province is Alberta. When members from Alberta come to me and say that the feds cut back in education and social transfers and that it is their fault hospitals had to be closed I do not buy that argument. Alberta finds itself today with a balanced budget, a billion dollar surplus, and is well on its way to eliminating its debt.
Was it a federal decision to close the hospitals or schools, or was it a provincial decision by Mr. Klein and company that may have gone a little too quickly?
Those were individual decisions the provinces had to make. Our commitment is to give them the money and to give it on a five year basis so that they can plan their fiscal needs and priorities. When it comes to cutbacks the priorities of individual provinces are established. Those provinces acted prudently, so much so that almost seven provinces have balanced budgets. They have benefited. To come back four years later and say maybe we should not have cut back, hindsight is 20:20.