Mr. Speaker, in the years to come, transfer payments to the provinces will go up about 6% annually, while federal revenues are expected to rise about 2% if all goes well. We are, therefore, doing everything we can to help the provinces as much as possible.
Moreover, why is it that the Minister of Finance wants to meet with his counterparts? To ensure that Canada remains the only economy in the industrialized world that has the great pleasure of having a surplus it can argue about.