Mr. Speaker, I would like to comment on the speech just made by the hon. member.
I thank him for his information and his speech, but I was a little surprised, because he was initially almost in favour of the motion. But I am not surprised about how his speech ended, because I do not think his party would allow him to vote in favour of this motion.
I would simply like to set the record straight, because Liberals often try to minimize the importance of drastic cuts in the Canadian social transfer by telling us about tax points which have supposedly increased. This is totally false and I am pleased to set the record straight.
I have here a document that was produced by an economist, a tax expert, who knows how to set the record straight. As I am not an economist or a tax expert, I cannot go into the complex mechanics of federal transfers. But I can tell members that this claim is unfounded.
The federal government always brings back the argument of increased tax points. This is unfounded for two reasons: first, there is no relation between the value of tax points and the value of cash transfers.
But Liberals would really like the give the impression they have compensated for their cash cuts by giving more generous tax points. In fact, they have no merit, because the value of tax points is linked to the changing economic situation.
However, the level of cash transfers is determined only by the federal government. It is these transfers that have been cut. An important fact is that the value of tax points would have been increased by the same amount if the federal government had not slashed cash transfers, because there is no direct link between them.
Furthermore, and I will conclude on this, tax point transfers are not transfers, they are simply tax revenues like any others for the provinces.