Mr. Speaker, I listened very carefully to my hon. colleague's remarks. I notices that he has a strong bias for the equalization program.
I would like to point out to him something he left out and which, based on his logic, ought to have been pointed out as something important.
Some time ago, a commission was set up in Quebec City by the former Landry government to look into the fiscal imbalance between the provinces and the federal government. As a result of this imbalance, surpluses have been pouring year after year since 1996 into the government's coffers, but the tax resources in the provinces' coffers for health, education and various programs are dwindling
Does my hon. colleague not think that it would be a good idea to join forces against the federal government, to get it to resolve the issue of the fiscal imbalance and transfer, for example, tax points to the provinces so that they can have sufficient tax resources to provide services directly to the public?
If there were not such a huge fiscal imbalance between the provinces and the federal government, perhaps we would not be having this debate, this morning, on the extyension of the equalization program. Perhaps the provinces would not have to rely as heavily on this program, because their tax resources would match their responsibilities.