Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise to speak to the Bloc Quebecois motion, which states:
That this House acknowledge the existence of a fiscal imbalance jeopardizing the continued quality of social programs, such as health care and education, in Quebec and in the other provinces.
We all know that the Séguin commission, which was asked to consider and investigate the causes of the fiscal imbalance in Canada, as well as possible solutions to that problem, tabled its report a few days ago.
It is sad to have to ask the federal government to acknowledge the existence of a fiscal imbalance in the country. We have to ask the Liberals to recognize a fact recognized by 64% of all Canadians and 74% of Quebecers, as well as all the political parties in Quebec, namely that the money is in Ottawa while the needs are in the provinces. Again, I find it sad that we have to spend a day of debate on something that is so obvious to everybody except the Minister of Finance, his parliamentary secretary, and the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, who deny this situation.
Even his former university colleague, the MNA for Chapleau, Mr. Benoît Pelletier, went as far as asking the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs to stop denying that reality for he was sinking into ridicule. Those words were not mine, they were from his colleague in the Quebec Liberal Party.
Here are some other quotations. Bernard Landry said “The Séguin report gives an absolute, clear and easy to understand proof that Quebec, like other provinces, is being suffocated by the Government of Canada.”
Jean Charest, the current leader of the opposition in Quebec, said “There is clearly a fiscal imbalance.”
Mario Dumont, the ADQ leader, said “Now, even before thinking of decentralizing the federation, it is imperative to point out the major fiscal imbalance between Quebec City and Ottawa.”
What are the causes of the fiscal imbalance? The three main causes are: first, the imbalance between expenditures and access to revenue sources; second, the inadequate federal transfers; third, the federal spending power.
It is very simple, the federal government is piling up revenues largely exceeding its expenditures. As an example, in 2000-01, its revenues exceeded its expenditures by $59 billion. That shows that this government is increasingly bulimic, as pointed out by my hon. colleague for Charlesbourg--Jacques-Cartier.
Moreover, as soon as they came to power, the Liberals started to cut unilaterally into the health and social transfers to provinces. In summary, the federal transfers account for a decreasing share of the revenue of the Quebec government from the early 1980s on.
In 2000-01, that share was only 16% of Quebec's revenues, compared to 28% in 1983-84. That is a 12% revenue shortfall.
What are the impacts of the fiscal imbalance? The Bloc Quebecois has identified five major impacts. Essentially, taxpayer dollars stay in Ottawa, while the needs are in Quebec and the other provinces. That jeopardizes the health and education systems. People's needs are not well covered. Services delivery is not as efficient as it should be. The autonomy of Quebec and the other provinces in terms of decision-making and budgeting is compromised.
With its staggering surplus, the federal government is restricting the provinces' flexibility. Quebec, for example, will no longer be able to provide quality health care because its fiscal balance will be very precarious, according to the Séguin commission.
The impact on the regions of Quebec results directly from the other factors I just mentioned, which will have an exponential negative effect on the survival of the regions and their balance.
Moreover, it is clear that the impact on the development of Quebec's regions will be terrible in the years to come.
Representing as it does 25% of the total population of Canada, Quebec should normally be able to benefit from transfer payments in keeping with its demographic weight. This is, alas, far from the reality. At present, there is an under-representation of what are termed “structuring” expenditures, such as the purchase of goods and services, investments and grants to businesses.
Based on our estimates, Quebec receives $3.5 billion less than its demographic weight entitles it to, which allows us to state that this deficit might at least partly explain the historical gap between the unemployment levels in Quebec and in Canada.
If we refer to the Institut de la statistique du Québec, for every $100 million in expenditures by the central government, some 920 direct jobs and 381 indirect jobs are created.
If this $3.5 billion shortfall were done away with, Quebec could hope to see 45,500 jobs created. This amount represents one third of the jobs in Saguenay--Lac-St. Jean. It represents a 1.4% increase in the activity rate for Quebec and close to 1% decrease in the unemployment rate.
Inevitably, the consequences of fiscal imbalance are extremely harmful for the regions of Quebec. In addition to the federal cutbacks in health, education and social services, the $3.5 billion shortfall in structuring expenditures has a very negative impact on the economy of Quebec and the regions.
This is also the case for capital investments in the various regions of Quebec. In light of these figures, it seems obvious that the regions of Quebec are being abandoned by the central government and that they get back but a tiny portion of the taxes they send to the federal capital.
Let us talk about the Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean region alone. In 1998, taxpayers in my region sent $508,464,000 to Ottawa in personal income taxes. In terms of capital expenditures, the federal government spent $763,000 in my region in 1999, which is less than one half of 1%, even though we account for 3.9% of Quebec's population.
Since 1993, the Government of Canada has slashed transfers to the provinces. In Quebec, cuts in health transfers alone totalled $1 billion. For my region, this represents a $38 million shortfall since 1993, which is equivalent to the total budget of the Centre hospitalier de Jonquière.
It means fewer nurses, fewer doctors, less equipment and fewer direct services to the public. It has become increasingly difficult to get medical care quickly. Waiting lists for surgery keep getting longer. This is the direct result of what is happening now. People have no choice but to go to the United States to get medical care.
We are not asking the federal government to give us the moon. We are merely asking that it recognize that there is an imbalance, that the needs are in the provinces and that it is taking too much money from these same provinces. We are merely asking that it give back to the provinces what is rightfully theirs and stop denying the fact that a fiscal imbalance does exist. Everybody else agrees on that.