Mr. Speaker, I have listened carefully to my Liberal colleague.
It takes a lot of gall to make statements like that, saying for instance that the provincial tax revenues were not in danger because they had the fiscal capacity to seek out tax revenue, on alcohol and gaming, for instance.
Is he trying to tell us that, to make up for the loss of the $875 million in equalization overpayments Quebec, for example, would have to pay back because of the federal government's error, it would have to encourage Quebecers to drink and gamble more? This is patently ridiculous.
What he neglected to say was that there is a fiscal imbalance at the present time, and the former finance minister kept making ridiculous statements in the House, year after year, about the amount of surplus. As for federal tax revenues, they have been inflated by the fact that the tax base is heavily dominated by federal personal income tax, which has gone up 7.3% annually since 1993.
Then there is all the money that has been cleverly pocketed by the folks over there from the unemployed, putting another $6 billion or $7 billion into the EI fund. As well, there are the cuts inflicted on the provinces, which represent $24 billion net shortfall for health and education.
Now, with the billions of dollars in government surplus funds, $17 billion last year, $10 billion this year and $14 billion the next, they are incapable of treating the provinces properly. They cannot do without demanding reimbursement from provinces who received those funds because of a miscalculation by the federal government. The mistake was the federal government's. They must be allowed to keep this money, but the others who did not have the benefit of this mistake, must be compensated.
It seems to me that this would be the right thing to do, for once, to deal properly with the provinces, which are being forced to cope with delivering necessary services to their populations, essential services such as health and education.
Let them finally get that through their heads instead of making such ridiculous statements.