Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Lotbinière. What he has just said is quite right. I will simply take one cut to show that Quebec is doing more than its share in absorbing cuts and is therefore poorer than the other provinces in Canada as the result of the actions by the Minister of Finance. Let us consider the cuts decreed in the 1995 budget in the Canada social transfer, with which, it must be remembered, Quebec was to fund health care, post-secondary education and social assistance.
The plan for the cuts, which began in 1995 and will conclude in 2003, will mean that Quebec alone will suffer of some $16 billion of the $31 billion in cuts decreed by the Minister of Finance. This is over 50% of the cuts.
Quebec is going to suffer 50% of the cuts to the social transfer, while it represents only 24.5% of the Canadian population. Is this fair? Is this equitable? Absolutely not.
Looking at R and D expenditures—this should be heeded by those subservient Liberals from Quebec across the way, because we have been saying this for 20 years over and over, and they still haven't got it—we have not received our fair share of federal government goods and services expenditures and structuring expenditures. We are $2.5 billion in the hole every year.
Telling us that this system represents enrichment for Quebec is false. My colleague from Lotbinière has done well to raise this aspect of the question.