Mr. Speaker, I am happy to speak to my colleague's motion. According to this motion, the government should call a federal-provincial first ministers' conference to discuss the federal government's surpluses and a possible transfer of tax points.
It was practically unbelievable to hear members, such as the Liberal member for Beauharnois—Salaberry, mention in the House that there were deficits and that is why the federal government must no longer transfer tax points to provinces, when we have surpluses coming out of our ears. The federal government has $19 billion in surpluses.
I am proud of my Bloc Quebecois colleague—duly recognized by the member for Markham—who, on this day last year, estimated to within 2% the surpluses forecast by the Minister of Finance. Again, my colleague is announcing that next year the federal surpluses will still be $19 billion. I tend to believe him more than any other member in the House. He was the only one, and I thank him, to tell all Quebecers and all Canadians about the financial situation of the federal government.
I consider most timely his motion that the government should call a federal-provincial first ministers' conference to discuss the federal surpluses of billions of dollars and a possible transfer of tax points to the provinces, which certainly need them, for a very simple reason. For all those Quebecers who are listening today, I say our quality of life is provided to us by the provinces and their various entities, including the municipalities. Here is what I mean by that.
Health is the main factor that contributes to a person's quality of life, and health services are provided by the provincial government. The same goes for education. We all want our young people to have a good education so they can succeed in life, and education is a provincial responsibility.
There is also public safety; we all want to feel safe. There is water quality, water treatment, household garbage collection and disposal, these are all services provided by municipalities, as well as transportation. These factors that contribute to the quality of life of all Quebecers and Canadians depend on services provided by the provinces and municipalities, their entities.
That quality of life has been severely compromised. Let us all remember the year 1992. That is when the federal government decided to make the most drastic cuts to transfers to provinces in Canadian history. In 1984, these transfers were at 23%; in 1993, they were at about 20%. They were cut by nine percentage points over six years before going back up slightly. Now, about 14% of Quebec spending comes from federal transfers. But let us not forget that when the health system was put in place, the federal government paid 50% of the cost. Now, it is down to just 14%.
It is important that we all remember the year 1992, the year when, perhaps to eliminate the accumulated deficit, the federal government decided to make drastic cuts in transfers to provinces. It is only fitting that we should be debating my colleague's motion today, at a time when the government will rake in, year in and year out, a $19 billion surplus. The Canadian government should convene the premiers to discuss the federal surpluses and to transfer tax points to improve the quality of life of Quebecers and Canadians.
We should never forget that by 2008 health spending will have doubled in Quebec, from $10 billion today to $20 billion.
Health and education will take up over 45% of the provincial budget. If that is true in Quebec, it will be the same in all Canadian provinces.
We should understand that since 1992, the federal government has withdrawn some of its support to try to erase its huge accumulated deficit. This withdrawal had a domino effect in the provinces.
Since 1992, they had to make cuts in health, education and transfers to municipalities. I am well aware of this because I was in municipal politics. Until last year, I was president of the Union des municipalités du Québec. Prior to 1992, none or very few of Quebec's municipalities submitted applications to the federal government. They always managed to reach agreement with the government of Quebec.
With the cuts in federal transfers to the provinces since 1992, a crisis has developed in Quebec involving the municipalities and the government of Quebec. In the past few months, without any reason, and even though the municipalities are the creatures of the government of Quebec, we have heard statements made by ministers outside the House and even in the House that consideration should be given to amending the Canadian constitution so that money may be transferred to the municipalities. This is rich.
The federal government is not even capable of transferring the proper amounts to the provincial governments in order to resolve education and health care problems, and it is prepared, for purely political reasons, to transfer funds and consider amending the constitution in order to transfer funds to municipalities to help them settle their problems. Prior to 1992, they had no problem, they could deal with provinces one on one.
Now, because of the cuts to transfers and because provinces have had to put most of the money they could get hold of into health and education, which are major expenses, over 45% of Quebec's budget and, because of the federal government's drastic cuts in transfers to the provinces, they barely manage to maintain the portion the federal government could send them. Some of the small increases are nothing more than what they were getting before in federal subsidies to keep up with the cost of spending in each of these sectors. But the federal government still maintains its share of approximately 14% of all spending on health care and education and other public services. The federal government pays only 13.9% of spending on all these services in the provinces.
As far as I know, we pay 50% of our taxes to the federal government. What does it do with our taxes? Simple. It is maintaining an old age security system that has hardly been indexed. The government has not even been able to index the old age security system to the cost of living. But it is keeping an army. In Saint-Jean, Quebec, they closed a military base. In Quebec, we have the army, but they are closing military bases.
With respect to airports, we have discussed in the past, here in the House, the developments at the Mirabel and Dorval airports in Quebec, the transfer of flights from Quebec to Toronto. This is a federal decision. This is what the federal government is doing with Quebecers' money.
I can talk about research and development, because I come from the Outaouais region. There are 50 research and development centres in eastern Ontario. Until last year, we had one on the Quebec side in the Outaouais; the government shut it down. This is what the federal government is doing with Quebecers' money. It has decided to spend money on economic development.
In conclusion, in the transportation area in the last two years, $10 million out of the whole budget was spent in Quebec. We are talking about road infrastructures, with an annual budget of $100 million. Only $10 million was spent in Quebec. Elsewhere in Canada, over 50% of the budget was spent in the maritime provinces to help Liberals win the last election.
These are always political decisions that go against Quebec's interests. I hope that Quebecers will have understood that since 1992 it is Canada, through the most drastic cuts in its history, that has hurt the most the health and education systems of Quebec.