Mr. Speaker, my colleague has raised an important point that I tried to address earlier. The fact is that the fiscal imbalance in this country is a myth. It is a myth first of all because the provinces have the same taxation authority, the ability to raise taxes, as this government has. The budget priorities, the fiscal priorities of the provinces are determined by the provinces. If some provinces want to spend money on tax cuts before they balance their budgets and expect Ottawa to pay for health care, that is a decision they make and I am sure that is a decision for which they will have to answer.
As I pointed out before, some provinces, including Quebec, say they do not recognize tax points, but then they turn around and say they want more tax points.
A classic example would be the myth that the provinces perpetrated on this country about the 14¢ that the federal government gave in health care. It is utter nonsense. The 14¢ was cash and the balance, which totalled 35¢ to 38¢, was of course tax points. Tax points do not sound like something on which we want to spend a lot of time, except that it is money this government raised and returned to the provinces. The provinces only recognize that when it suits them. In the area of health care, the 14¢ was a myth.
When it comes to the issue of fiscal imbalance, I would agree with my colleague when he says that the fiscal imbalance is probably among provinces or among regions.The fact is that if they have the same ability to collect revenues, they make those decisions. However they should not expect the federal government to be an ATM machine to help them out because they made priorities, which they are certainly allowed to do, without dealing with their books and without taking the responsible course that this government took in dealing with our own national deficit of $42.5 billion. We had to make tough choices.
At the same time I hear from colleagues on the other side that it was downloaded to the provinces. The issues are that this government made cuts in government spending. We cut in terms of members of the civil service. We had some pretty tough times.
The fact is though that Canadians understood the need to deal with the national deficit. That is why we are now at 44.5% of GDP in terms of the national debt. That is why we are able to invest in health care, invest in children, invest in communities without incurring a deficit.
To me that would seem to be the prudent approach to dealing with economic matters. Others may take a different view, but the fact is that the provinces are masters of their own financial fortunes. We are there as partners in many areas. When I hear certain members in the House talk about fiscal imbalance, not one shred of evidence has been brought forth that I have seen to suggest that there is.