Mr. Speaker, I want to take the member to task about some of the numbers he is using regarding tax credits and actual dollars. Let us look at actual dollars. We are not even back to the 1993 level of actual dollar transfers to the provinces. We are still $500 million short in spite of the fact that inflation is up by 15% and the population is up by 8%. Knowing full well the concerns that Canadians have about proper funding for health care and the whole issue of health care in general, the government in its budget in December did not address how this will be structured in the years to come and there was no new funding.
The fact remains that over all the years the cuts the government has made to transfer payments amount to $25 billion. No matter how we add up the numbers, the fact is that transfer payments have been short $25 billion since 1993. I would like the member to clarify those facts.