My colleague from Matapédia—Matane tells me that the only thing left to tax is shrimp and I am pretty sure they are going to do that too.
At some point in one's life, however, there has to be a minimum of scruples. It is all very well to attack widows, orphans and the poor. Unemployment has never been attacked. The unemployed have been attacked instead. The poor people have been attacked instead. That is the history of this government.
Now it is gloating over billions of dollars. In a few days, on Monday, February 28, the Minister of Finance will bring down his budget. He will be wearing his new shoes and a flower on his lapel, and he will tell us that things are going great, when in fact he got his surpluses by literally robbing taxpayers, by taxing them indirectly under the cover of employment insurance contributions and other things. The minister did not have the courage to tax directly, as the previous government did, and I recognize that.
When it came to taxes, the previous government knew where to collect them and it called them taxes. This government dips into the employment insurance fund. It takes out as much as it possibly can, to the tune of $24 billion or $25 billion annually. It reduces transfers to the provinces. Things are not going well in hospitals, both in Quebec and elsewhere, because of the federal government.