Mr. Speaker, with your permission, I would like to ask for the consent of the House to share my time with the member for Charlesbourg—Jacques-Cartier. In any case, I think it is in accordance with the standing orders.
It really takes quite a lot of nerve for government members to rise here in the House and tell us that everything is perfectly fine and to refuse to see a reality that the member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot is not the only one to observe.
All the premiers, regardless of their allegiance, whether they represented a Progressive Conservative, New Democrat or Liberal government, including the former premier of Newfoundland and now Minister of Industry, came to the same conclusion as that of the Bloc Quebecois today. This conclusion is that, in the Canadian federal system, there is an incredible distortion between the pressure under which the provinces are to provide services to their citizens in vital areas such as education, health and social services, and the situation of the federal government, which accumulates surpluses and is involved in areas where the pressure is much less.
A number of experts have mentioned the paradox whereby this government got rich partly because of free trade, while it was opposed to free trade. Beyond the economic policies that it has chosen, this government has had recurrent influxes of money, only because a free trade agreement was signed.
This government was opposed to free trade. It had pledged to abolish the GST. The whole thing became so ridiculous that anglophones say that GST stands for “give Sheila time”. It became a well known fact that this government did not feel bound by its commitments.
The motion put forward by the hon. member for Lévis-et-Chutes-de-la-Chaudière is asking that, through existing mechanisms, a first ministers' conference be called to decide on the type of fiscal rebalancing that should be considered to ensure the kind of balance that is so important in a federation.
When I was a university student I learned—and I am sure I am not the only one who did—that federalism is characterized by the coexistence of two levels of government in a state of balance. If this is the case, then we must call this conference, because we desperately need to correct the existing imbalance.
Here are some figures which I find very meaningful. Between 1993 and 2001, federal government revenues increased by 53%. During that period, its expenditures went down by 3%. If its spending were reduced, one does not need a doctorate in economy to understand that it made cuts and offloaded a number of responsibilities, or that the pressure to provide services is not on this government, but on the provincial governments.
In the meantime, during the same period—no one can say that our numbers are not precise—from 1993 to 2001, program spending in Quebec, when considering all the programs administered by the Quebec government, increased by 16%. It increased by 32% in health care alone.
I would like members to remember that a year ago all the health ministers asked their public service—so it is not the member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot or the member for Hochelaga—Maisonneuve or the member for Lévis—the public service of each province was asked by its health minister to see what kind of pressure will be put on the different health departments throughout the country in the coming years.
This led to a study that I have here witch says that for the next several years, not two or three years, but 15 years if the provinces want to provide exactly the same services every year, if all Quebecers who received health services last year expect to receive exactly the same services, the budget of Quebec's health minister will have to increase by 5%.