Mr. Speaker, if I were a member from Ontario, I would applaud. My colleague is from Ontario, and it is the sure winner.
But if Quebec costs Canada so much, why are you doing everything possible to keep it in this federation? If it costs too much, you could be saving hundreds of millions, maybe billions, from what you say.
I would remind my colleague—we will be more serious—of his remarks. He mentioned 29%. All right, let us say 29% with equalization payments, but he is mixing apples and oranges. That makes for a real slop. They do not understand anymore either, and that is why they keep running the same tape each time.
But let us look at the 29%. Does the member know how much of the cuts the Quebec finance minister has had to cope with in five years? He would not know that. Ontario is the winner. It is obsessed with the extraordinary gains it has made with this budget.
In Quebec, however, we have taken 39% of the cuts. That is not bad, when they talk about 29% in equalization payments. Yet we always got hit, when the time came to cut, with 39% of the cut. However, when it is time to distribute, the percentage drops. So, the truth has to come out too.
Promoting jobs and economic growth for Ontario is fine. All the Ontario members are in favour. In Quebec, it would be promoted too if we did not have doormat members asleep at the switch whenever it comes to making a budget that promotes Quebec. I think things would go a little better for Quebeckers and especially for Quebec's unemployed.