Right.
In 1942, the Government of Quebec, and others, handed over all tax points from personal taxes because the Canadian constitution, your constitution that you supposedly defend so passionately, includes very clear provisions regarding the exclusive jurisdiction of the provinces over direct taxes. Under the spirit and the letter of the Canadian constitution, personal taxes are a strictly provincial jurisdiction.
In 1942, we temporarily relinquished this jurisdiction. In Quebec, we handed over all our personal tax points—we are nice—but only temporarily, in order to finance the war effort, on the understanding that, after the war, the federal government would withdraw from this jurisdiction it had entered illegally and has held on to. If anyone wants to talk about tax points for tax points, we can tell them a thing or two.
Using the logic of the members opposite, what does this mean? It means that the federal government cannot claim to have given Quebec and the Canadian provinces something that did not belong to it. That is what it means.
Under the Canadian constitution, this is an exclusively provincial jurisdiction. How can the federal government now claim to have handed over, in the 1960s and late 1970s, tax points from personal income, when it does not have jurisdiction in this area?
In real life, how can one give back a house that one does not own? We are not rewriting history, but let us talk about tax points for tax points. That is what this is really about.
I was saying that we are now at a turning point. The federal government must realize that it cannot continue to accumulate surpluses indefinitely, while the provinces are unable to meet health needs, which are increasing at the rate of 7% or 8% annually. With a contribution of 14 cents for each dollar invested in health, the federal government should not complain about how hard it is for it to maintain our health system.
Yet, it is these people, who claim to be in favour of a health system that is universal and accessible to all, who are speeding up the privatization process of health care in Canada.
We will not be able to survive with an underfinanced system, as is the case right now, and with arguments so demagogic that they do not stand up to scrutiny. If there is no change in the way of doing things, of considering the issue of tax imbalance, this is more or less what could happen in Quebec in nine or ten years, and also in the Canadian provinces.
In less than ten years, 85% of Quebec's program expenditures will be in health and education. This will leave 15% for all the other priorities. We cannot maintain efficient resource management under a mandate democratically given to a national assembly and leave only 15% to deal with all the priorities relating to environmental protection, international representation and regional development.
Something will have to be done. Our solution is a return of tax points. We are talking about a return because, normally, after World War II, we should have kept these tax points. But at the time, the federal government was trying to centralize, as it still is now. We are talking about very strong attempts at centralization, as the federal government has grabbed a taxation power, which is the key element here, to fund initiatives in provincial jurisdictions. Such measures are major attempts at centralization to build a unitarian state.
The government should stop talking about partnership. It is hypocritical to say that. There is no partnership between the federal government and the provinces. There is constant confrontation and conflict. It is the federal government that is responsible for these conflicts and it is also the federal government that will be responsible for the privatization of health care.
If there had been tax points in 1977 instead of tax point transfers, plus a part in cash payments for health and education, do hon. members know how much more this would have represented for the coffers of the Government of Quebec? Starting that year, there would have been $4.5 billion more than the current contribution the federal government makes to health and education.
Oh no, tax points are not a paying proposition. Our troublemaker over there—I am referring to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs—is traipsing about everywhere with his detestable paternalistic air, telling everybody they are not a paying proposition. That is what he says: tax points are not a paying proposition. Oh no, not a paying proposition. With a nearly 7% rise in personal income tax revenues, not a paying proposition? It is for the federal government, but would not be if handed over to Quebec.
A person would need to be a real demagogue to make such statements. On the equalization formula alone, he claims “You will lose equalization payments if the tax points are transferred to you”. No way. He, like the Minister of Finance, knows nothing about public finances.
As a matter of fact, the Minister of Finance made two outrageous remarks yesterday. I will come back to equalization later. He said: “In 1999, the Government of Quebec had $16 billion more in income than the federal government.” I am still looking in public accounts and everywhere, even in the budgets he has tabled. He does not even know his own budgets.
I believe I know what he did. He referred to the extra $16 billion as income coming from municipal taxes, contributions to the Régie des rentes and revenue from school boards, as if the Government of Quebec could use all that to finance its own initiatives. I believe that is what he did. If that is the case, it was not very honest on his part.
Second, he said that after the special abatement of Quebec, the province' s share of personal income tax is much higher than what is believed. Actually, after the special abatement, the federal government gets around 60 per cent of personal income tax, while Quebec only gets 40 per cent. The Minister should review his numbers and stop his trash talk. Those were two outrageous remarks.
Therefore, we belive that a return of tax points is the solution.
First of all, there should automatically be an adjustment of federal transfers in health and education to take into account the cuts which have occurred since 1994. This means we should come back to the level of 1994 and transform it immediately in tax points. We should eliminate the CHST, the cash payment, and replace it immediately by tax points. Finally, we should immediately launch a debate on the transfer of supplementary tax points to those I mentioned.
This is a lasting and efficient solution, which would force the federal to manage its own affairs in those two areas.