—in an effort to make his mark in history. He will, but not for the budget. We will get to that a little later.
It is so definitely the Prime Minister's budget that, for the first time in years, he will be the one going to New York to talk to financiers about the budget rather than the Minister of Finance, who, however, reduced the deficit to zero this year.
For the first time in 28 years, we have a balanced budget, yet it is not the Minister of Finance who is being sent—this would perhaps take time away from his leadership race—but the Prime Minister. He is the one going to New York.
I said that it was the provinces and the unemployed who did the work. Let us take a look at how the zero deficit was achieved.
Fifty-two per cent of the cutbacks were carried out by the provinces, in health, I recall, in education and in income support for the most disadvantaged. This means that for each dollar cut in Quebec, 75 cents was because of Ottawa, and the people of Quebec need to be reminded of this. The cuts, the problems in the education, health and welfare systems are the fault of the federal government.
Individuals suffered 37% of the cuts, and only 12% were to federal spending. The Minister of Canadian Heritage was able to continue draping herself in flags. There were no cuts to the heritage minister's flag budgets.
Then a surplus appeared. We might have expected to see it go to the provinces, but no, 23% went to them, 26% went to individuals and 51% was spent by the federal government on new initiatives in areas of provincial jurisdiction. This is why we have this crushing $583 billion debt. A good part of it is because of the genius of the Prime Minister when he was finance minister.
But that is not all. In addition to grabbing revenues, the Minister of Finance is not telling us everything. He keeps quite a few things to himself, does the finance minister. We saw it in Bill C-28, which he sponsored. While it contains provisions on international shipping, he claims he did not know. That is worrisome in a finance minister. If he did know, there may not be a conflict of interest, we shall see about that, but there is definitely, at the very least, an apparent conflict of interest.
This minister hides things from us, not only his personal interests, but also his deficits. Last year, the Bloc Quebecois said he had approximately $12 billion in leeway. We did not have figures, but our prediction was about $12 billion. We were told we did not know how to do the math, that it was ridiculous, that our figures did not hold up. Last year, they realized there was a $15 billion error and this year, $17 billion. We were right on. This minister maximized his deficits. This year, he is minimizing his surpluses.
We are not the only ones to say so. I am thinking of financial expert Jean-Luc Landry of Bolton Tremblay, whose comment on the Minister of Finance's surpluses was “He hides them from us, that is very clear”. Alain Dubuc, editorial writer at La Presse , which is not known for its sovereignist views—it is owned by Power Corporation—wrote that the minister was so prudent that he is becoming untruthful. That is what Alain Dubuc said.
But why all this whispering about? It is clear. If the minister showed us he had surpluses in hand, he would then be obliged, if he had that amount to spare, to meet the needs of the provinces, of the unemployed, of the taxpayers whose taxes have gone up because the tax tables have not been indexed since 1993, and even back in the days of the Conservatives.
This raises the whole matter of this government's hypocrisy. It cuts assistance to the provinces and then comes along pretending to be their saviour, saying “Look here, we have injected $6 billion into the Canada social transfer”. That is one way of looking at it. The reality is that instead of cutting $48 billion by the year 2003, they will cut $42 billion. And they call this investing $6 billion. The reality is $42 billion in cuts. For Quebec, this means $12 billion in cuts.
Politically, this has been explained. From time to time, ministers tell us what they are really up to. The President of the Treasury Board said that, when Bouchard would be forced to make cuts, they in Ottawa would be able to show that they can afford to preserve social programs for the future. That is clear.
When the Prime Minister saw French people marching to protest cuts to social programs, he told Jacques Chirac in his colourful way of speaking: “You know, things are done differently in Canada. Decisions are made in Ottawa, and the province have to make cuts”. It was crystal clear. That is exactly what they are doing, and the premiers have noticed.
Just this week, Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow, who is no sovereignist—he was there with the Prime Minister on the “night of the long knives” in 1982 at the Château Laurier, so he is not exactly a friend of Quebec—