Mr. Speaker, the imbalance that exists in Quebec is not fiscal, but political. In 1998, the Liberal Party of Quebec got more votes, but the Parti Quebecois got more seats. Therefore, there is a deficit, a political imbalance.
The fact is that the Government of Canada, the federal government, has the responsibility of wealth distribution, and to do that, it has a tool called equalization. It is through equalization that the Government of Canada can intervene in some provinces in order to support the delivery of various services to the people, such as education, health care, and so on.
Before 1995, the Bloc Quebecois criticized the Liberal government then in power for its successive deficits. Today, it criticizes the government for running surpluses. Yet, I am at a loss to comprehend how one can say that there is a fiscal deficit or imbalance between the provinces, between Quebec and Ottawa when the Government of Canada has a debt of over $500 billion. It is fairly clear to me that normally surpluses should be used to pay down the debt.
Moreover, the Government of Canada must pay off a debt that is owed by all Canadians: Quebecers, Ontarians, Manitobans, etc. We cannot talk about a fiscal imbalance when the Government of Canada has to pay off a debt of more than $500 billion. Canada's debt is, on a per capita basis, higher that Quebec's.