Mr. Speaker, my colleague seems to be wondering what planet the opposition parties are living on. As for me, I wonder what planet the Liberal government is living on to bring down a budget such as the one the finance minister brought down.
This budget is a piecemeal approach. They are not addressing the real problem of poverty, as the government wished. They go on about wanting to reduce poverty in Canada, but I do not think this sort of budget will do it. They are not addressing the real problems. They are spending money all over the place without any real strategies.
For instance, they cut the Canada social transfer by $42 billion. At present, they are boasting about wanting to attack an area of provincial jurisdiction, the Canada social transfer. In health and education, the Canada social transfer will receive a mere $2.5 billion, after $10 billion has been cut from education alone. In order to really address the problem of education in Quebec, Quebec and the other provinces should get the Canada social transfer back, so that they may develop true education strategies.
What we are calling for, therefore, is to return the funds in the Canada social transfer so that true strategies may be developed. In Quebec, what are those true strategies? To address the problem of school dropouts and to restore funding to educational institutions so that they may be in good financial health and able to provide students with a proper education.
We would have liked to have seen real employment insurance legislation, with lower contributions and more people eligible. So the millennium scholarships, employment insurance, a real employment strategy—