Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my colleague from Richmond--Arthabaska. I agree with just about everything he said. The motion before us today is a very finely worded motion. I thought it was quite diplomatic in putting forward the reality that a fiscal imbalance is jeopardizing our social programs of today.
We can think about the fact that we have the Romanow commission. There is a crisis in medicare, a crisis in the funding of health care. This is why we have a royal commission.
We can think about post-secondary education and the crisis there. We are at a 30 year low of federal funding for post-secondary education. Tuition fees are skyrocketing. When it comes to social programs it seems like the Liberal government has completely abandoned that field altogether.
Would the hon. member comment on the question of how these programs are now being jeopardized by the fiscal imbalance or the complete erosion of federal transfers?
We heard the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage say earlier that health care was a priority of her government. Yet it seems to me that we have a crisis on our hands. Would the hon. member speak about how he believes health care is being jeopardized by the fiscal arrangements?