Mr. Speaker, what blackmail. It is really something to hear that.
I think the Bloc Quebecois is the one involved in petty politics. I have sat in this House for a long time. I recall the time we had large deficits. While we had them the Bloc members, the sovereignists, said “We have to leave this country because it is not working. You can see it is not working”.
Today we have surpluses. Things are very different. The surplus belongs to them. What blackmail. We should not repay our debt, we should send all the money to Quebec.
I am sorry, but I have always thought that when we repaid our debt we would avoid a lot of interest over the long term. We will have a lot more manoeuvring room than what we had before if we can pay the debt. Let us not forget there are tax points and cash transfers. We are maintaining a balance.
The tax points do not have the same value in each province. A balance must be struck. It is also important to be able to defend the things Canadians hold dear, such as the Canada Health Act.
We will continue to work with the provinces, despite the Bloc Quebecois' blackmail. It is always the same thing. When it is a matter of tax points, it is very important. However, when it suddenly is a matter of transfers to the provinces, they forget the tax points. Cash is the only subject of discussion. They say, “we have enough”. They play little games. It is not playing these little games.
If we sit down together and work, we can do extraordinary things. We did it when we balanced the budgets. We have done this with all Canadians, not just some of them. This is very important for me.
I want to know why they absolutely do not want the government to pay the debt. Do they think we will get ahead of ourselves? I think they are here for one thing alone, and that is to break up this country. It is not perfect, but it works pretty well.