Mr. Speaker, I do not know how to thank my dear colleague because the issue of equalization payments is a very important one. The Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and President of the Queen's Privy Council goes around with documents and a slide presentation containing shameful untruths. Obviously, they only give a partial analysis.
He says that as a result of tax point transfers, equalization payments will diminish. This is wrong. It is mathematically impossible in view of the mathematical formulas used to arrive at equalization payments called equalization entitlements. The part of the formula dealing with personal income tax is such that with a transfer of tax points to the provinces, under the formula used, the result would end up being positive.
Thus, not only are we going to benefit from a tax point transfer equal to the value of cash transfers adjusted to take into account the drastic cuts made by the Minister of Finance, but by transferring tax points in such a way, the results will be positive with regard to equalization.
Therefore, the provinces that are currently on the receiving end of equalization payments will get a bit more as a result of tax point transfers. I will take this opportunity to say that it is a first step: transferring tax points equivalent to the federal contribution to health and education.
Later on, we will have to talk about another tax point transfer, because we will not have dealt with the issue of the incredible surpluses accumulating in the federal government coffers year after year. The unbalance will not have been dealt with. All that will have been done is that part of the current federal funding of health and education will have been stabilized and that provinces will have been provided with a tax tool to increase their revenues.
As I said earlier, tax points respecting personal income tax are increasing exponentially year after year, to the tune of 7% a year. The Quebec government and other provinces will have this increased capacity, which will provide them with more stable and dependable funding for health care; predictability is important too.
Currently, even though the federal government is giving $800 million here and $500 million there, there is no way to get stable and predictable funding. In spite of what the Minister of Finance does and the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs says, a piecemeal approach to management does not work.