Mr. Speaker, allow me to congratulate my colleague, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance, for the exceptional work that he has done to ensure that the requests made by our caucus, regarding important sectors, be transmitted to the Minister of Finance. I am thinking, among others, of health, initiatives on infrastructure, and research and development. My colleague has worked extremely hard to promote, among other things, progressive measures for families.
However, I would like to give an opportunity to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance to dispel a myth that is currently going around in this country and which is called the fiscal imbalance. I am convinced—and the figures support this view—that the fiscal imbalance in Canada is to the provinces' advantage. Think about social transfers, equalization payments, tax points and government initiatives in critical areas of research and economic development.
I would like therefore to give my colleague an opportunity to dispel the myth to the effect that, in Canada, there is fiscal imbalance between the provinces and the Canadian government. Personally, I think that fiscal imbalance exists between the provinces and the regions, between the provinces and the municipalities. That is where the main problem lies.