Mr. Speaker, you can tell I was anxious to rise to participate in the debate. I was not a hockey referee, but I was quite athletic in my youth, and I am always anxious to get into a debate such as this.
I find it quite interesting to hear the member for Joliette. I was listening to Mr. Séguin, the Quebec finance minister, who said that the equalization formula is so complicated that, according to him—and he said this as a bit of a joke—there may be 10 or 12 people who fully understand it. He said that its very complexity makes it extremely expensive to administer. We are fortunate, because the member for Joliette must be one of those 10 or 12 people who have a good understanding of the equalization formula.
When I see that the government took into account 3,000 variables to distribute a tax base of $10 billion out of $180 billion, I think this is extremely costly and there should be other formulas.
I would like to hear what my colleague has to say about the amounts that we could save if, for example, Quebec were to become independent and keep all its revenues. I would like him to comment on this.