Mr. Speaker, the minority report of the Bloc Quebecois, and indeed the member's speech, discussed very briefly the aspect of deindexation. He noted in his dissenting report that the federal government would collect an estimated $17.6 billion of additional tax, thanks to non-indexation.
I will accept the numbers subject to check, but the budget surplus in the fiscal year ended March 31, 1999, was $2.9 billion. Since we have balanced the budget the surpluses have been quite modest. If deindexation had not been in place, clearly the government still would have been reporting deficit positions each and every year because of sheer size.
Does the member concede that deindexation or indexation is simply a form of delivering tax cuts? Is he in favour of tax cuts to the extent that they would put Canada back into a deficit position?