Mr. Speaker, I was not intending to speak this afternoon, but with the inanities—there is no other word for it—put forward by some of my colleagues, no doubt in good faith—I would not cast aspersions on their good faith—I must rise and correct a number of things. This debate could be very technical, but the remarks that have been made are not technical but demagoguery.
Among other things, they are saying that Quebec would not be in a situation of having to receive transfer or equalization payments if its economy were in a better state. And then, without further explanation, just like that, they say “Well, that will come later, once sovereignty has been gotten rid of”.
The Canadian Confederation was born in 1867, 132 years ago. Quebec was born 400 years ago. In the 132 years since Confederation, Quebec has never been as rich as Ontario. It is not alone in that. The maritimes, the Atlantic provinces were flourishing financially some 100 years ago.
Institutions in Halifax, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island were doing well. But the decision making centres moved to Ontario, as if by magic, by some miracle, and Toronto started expanding. So, why is this?
Is it because the people of Toronto, the people of Ontario, are particularly smart and those in the Atlantic provinces and Quebec less so? Is it because we are not good at business? Is it because we have not been blessed with Ontarians' special know-how? Absolutely not.
It is because the federal system in which we live has deliberately and systematically made sure that the rules favour Ontario.
I will give a very simple example, one mentioned several times by the Prime Minister here in the House: calls for tender are designed to favour the lowest bidder. So, when the government does most of its buying here in Ottawa and Ontario, naturally the closest suppliers have a better chance of putting in the lowest bid.
How could someone from St. John's, Newfoundland, bid on supplying office furniture here in Ottawa? There are all the transportation costs to factor in. But the folks in St. John's, Newfoundland, pay taxes just like us. The federal government uses these taxes to give Ontario businesses a leg up in the manufacture of goods or the delivery of services. That is the fact of the matter.
The so-called poor provinces are not poor because the people who live there are less innovative, inventive, entrepreneurial, courageous or intelligent; they are poor because the system siphons off money to the centre of this nation, of this confederation, or in others words here to Ontario, and compensates for this by paying out, as a sort of apology, transfer payments and equalization payments. Our money has been stolen—stolen is a big word—our money has been made off with and taxed, and instead of getting it back in the form of goods and services purchased, we get it back in the form of kind generosity, charity, transfer payments.
Transfer payments are not charity, it is a return of the taxes we have paid, which ought to have come back to us in the form of job creation but instead take the form of payments to the government in order to provide services to the population.
There is something seriously wrong here. My colleague here pointed out that contracts are being awarded in Ontario without bidding, up to $150,000 a shot. This is a considerable amount of money, which would enable businesses in the Atlantic provinces, in Quebec and elsewhere—the prairie provinces for instance—to get people working with the tax money that they pay, instead of seeing it go to pay for federal propaganda.