Mr. Speaker, I do not understand the hon. member's comment, because the figures I have given can be found in the Minister of Finance's documents from last December. They are the figures for cash transfers for funding health, education and income security via the Canada health and social transfer.
If he wants to go further, moreover, the columns that follow give the value of the tax points. Even if this is no longer the federal government's business, even if this field was handed over first in 1964 and again in 1977 for all provinces—and incidentally, this is not even an area that initially belonged to the federal government, but one it took over during the second world war in order to fund the war effort—he can find all these figures in the budget documents.
Yet the forecasts—and I can agree with him on this—differ considerably from the ones of the federal finance minister. He should trust our forecasts more than those of the federal Minister of Finance. As I have just said, every year the federal Minister of Finance is, on average, 173% off in his forecasts, within only a few months moreover.
To give only the last example of his budget, it will be seen that this Minister of Finance was being pretty cute, one might say. Last December, barely three and one half months ago, this wonderful manager, with administrative talents supposedly above average, forecast, that at the end of this fiscal year, that is within a few days, there would be a surplus of only $1.5 billion in the federal government's coffers. I would just like to remind hon. members that, for the first nine months of this fiscal year, the federal government has already amassed a surplus of some $13.4 billion.
Are hon. members aware of what would have to happen within the next two weeks or so? There would have to have been a deficit in the past few weeks, and in the next few days, of $12 billion. This makes no sense. We are talking about $13.4 billion. There would therefore have to be a deficit of $12 billion—illogical as that is—to eliminate the surplus that has already accumulated.
Our forecast is—and this is a very conservative scenario—that this coming March 31, there will be a minimum surplus of $9 billion in the federal coffers. Nine billion is a minimum figure, because for the first nine months the accumulation was already $13.4 billion.
He should trust our figures, then, instead of the minister's.