Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question but I believe that that cuts in transfers are things of the past because the minimum amount of the CHST has now been increased to $12.5 billion, which means $1.8 billion more for Quebec over five years. Moreover, $11.5 billion have already been put into the CHST. This means $2.7 billion more for Quebec.
I could go on and on. Equalization gives Quebec $2.8 billion more over five years, and Quebec now receives about half of the money available in the equalization fund, or about $4.5 billion per year.
In last year's budget, the government injected $11.5 billion into the CHST for health care and Quebec was a recipient of that. Whether the CHST should be augmented further is a very debatable point, which is the purpose of this discussion.
With respect to the question around employment insurance, Canadians understand and appreciate that the government had to take some very decisive action on this. Would everybody in the House agree that every measure we took was perfect? Would everyone in the House agree that perhaps there are some adjustments that need to be made? Perhaps. That is why we are having this debate. However, to say that we should fundamentally go back and re-open EI as it once was, I do not think Canadians would support that.