Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Lévis-et-Chutes-de-la-Chaudière is absolutely right. Not only have corporate taxes not increased, but they have decreased compared to Canada's gross domestic product.
As for federal personal income tax, it has increased since 1976-77. Let us look at how things stood in 1976-77, before the federal government transferred tax points to the provinces. The principle involved is simple. The federal government withdrew from a tax field to make room for the provinces, but overall the taxes did not increase, because the federal tax was simply replaced with a provincial tax.
In 1976-77, before the transfer of tax points, the federal revenues from personal income tax represented 7.3% of our GDP. After the transfer of tax points in 1977-78, that percentage dropped to 6.3%. But let us look at what the government has done since. They got back everything they gave up and did not even belong to them. They got back everything they gave up to the provinces in tax points.
By 1986-87, federal revenues from personal income tax had increased from 6.3% to 7.4% of our GDP. In 1998-99, with the hidden income tax increases designed by the finance minister, they had reached 8.1% of the GDP. So, the minister more than made up for what he gave up in 1977-78, again on the backs of taxpayers.
In fact, when you really look at it, the government did not give anything up at all. It has made money by increasing personal income tax in the last 15 years. In addition, it has given up something that did not belong to it. Then, it only gave up a part of something that did not belong to it. Consequently, the provinces and the Quebec government should in fact be asking the federal government to withdraw completely from personal income tax and to leave it to the provinces. This would be much more logical and it would respect the intent of the Canadian Constitution.
This is rather special. They claim to be complying with the Canadian constitution. They are fighting for it. They even patriated it against Quebec's wishes and without it's consent in 1982, but at the same time, they are not complying with it. Do you know why? Because the people opposite have a plan for centralization. This vision of one Canada with its nation building and its one country, one nation approach, we see it being implemented right here.
We have got news for them. Even though they are out to grab a taxation power in the area of public finances, which belongs to the Government of Quebec, we will soon make a decision that will allow us to build our own state. We will stop going down on our knees in front of them to try to obtain tax points. Quebecers have had enough of this. Look at all the polls. The members across the way take people for fools. People understand a lot of things, even though the subject of public finances is complex. They understand that in the end, Paul Martin is telling them tall tales.