Mr. Speaker, we are going to talk of reality, not the inflated statements on the Minister of Finance's tape, as replayed by his parliamentary secretary.
Does he want to know about tax savings? A family of two adults and one child, with a single income of $65,000, will save $700 this year, which is barely $60 a month. That is a lot, is it not, $15 a week?
Taking the same family of two adults and one child, but with two incomes totalling $65,000, they will save $250 this year. Wow. Some tax cut. This is wonderful.
If I had had the time earlier, I would have also talked about the inflexibility of the federal tax system as far as Quebec is concerned. I will give some examples, if I may. Quebec gives tax credits for shipbuilding, but they are then taxed by Ottawa.
There is also inflexibility as far as deducting student loan interest is concerned. Since student debt load in Quebec is less than in the rest of Canada, our province is not getting its share regarding that tax deduction. This is an example of the inflexibility of the federal tax system.
Then there is the deduction for daycare costs. Everyone wants to copy Quebec's $5 a day daycare program, but the federal government has turned a deaf ear when it comes to making the necessary tax adjustments. Some families in Quebec will lose tax deductions, because they are claiming less in daycare expenses from the federal government. The tab is $70 million. I could have talked about this inflexibility.
Yesterday, it was announced—and I would have done it earlier if I had had the time—that the super deduction for research and development the Quebec government—through the Minister of Finance, Bernard Landry—had announced in its budget last year, a measure similar to what has been done in Ontario for ten years with the hundreds of millions received by Ontario businesses through federal deductions for research and development, is quite simply a thing of the past.
Businesses did not even have six months to take advantage of that deduction, while Ontario companies had ten years to benefit from the hundreds of millions of dollars given by the federal government.
To those who claim that federalism is beneficial to Quebec, I say think again. It was demonstrated again yesterday that when Quebec has a good idea, Ottawa turns a deaf ear, because the Quebec government would look too good. When there is a measure that is good for economic growth, the government scraps it, as it did with the excellent Quebec research and development deduction. That is what is meant by federal flexibility.
I am tired of hearing about transfer payments being at the same level as in 1993. That is not the case. They are lumping cash transfers and tax points together. Tax points were transferred in the late 1960s. We wish the government would quit trotting out this tired old refrain. No one takes it seriously any more.
The truth is that provincial governments are out $4.2 billion every year, and the Government of Quebec is facing a $1.7 billion shortfall in health care funding. It is the fault of the federal government that people wait so long in emergency rooms and on surgery lists. It is the fault of the federal government that hospitals are closing, because, by 2003, it will have cut transfer payments for health, post-secondary education and social assistance by $31 billion. Members opposite should stop obediently playing the same old tapes, and the government should do its job.