Mr. Speaker, I am glad to have the opportunity to enter the debate.
In reading the motion, there are parts of it that I support. Maybe I will introduce an amendment because I do not like the first part dealing with the Prime Minister of Canada. The Prime Minister has indicated his generosity to the provinces, on behalf of all Canadians, in terms of the investments in health care and his commitment to deal with equalization.
However, I agree there is a fiscal imbalance. I was quite happy on October 7 when a motion was unanimously adopted by the House, which said that we fully respected the areas of jurisdiction of the provinces and that the financial pressures, some call the fiscal imbalance, would be alleviated. I was quite happy with that wording because some call a fiscal imbalance one thing and some call it another. I believe there is a fiscal imbalance, but I believe it is in favour of the provinces.
My colleague, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance, has been very clear on that point. If we look at the debt, if we look at the revenue sources and revenue streams, the provinces in aggregate have far more revenue sources and far less debt. For example, if we look at debt, it is 41% of GDP for the federal government and 22% of GDP for the provinces in aggregate. If we look at the revenues, the federal government on a net basis gets about $150 billion a year and the provinces get about $208 billion a year.
I find it is strangely ironic that the Bloc Québécois would bring forward this motion. As we all know, when the Bloc emerged in Quebec, it was not a have not province. However, it has become a have not province. Why? Because investment and economic activity have left Quebec. I was born and raised in Montreal. I am a member now in Toronto. We have been the beneficiaries of that. It is a sad commentary on our country and on our province of Quebec.
The percentage that goes to Quebec is $3 billion to $4 billion now, but at one point equalization payments got up to $5 billion out of $10 billion that was in existence at the time. Half of the equalization went to Quebec.
Yes, there is a fiscal imbalance and it is in favour of the provinces. They have all the revenues and we have the debt. In fact it is a good news story. This is where it gets very ironic in my judgment. People have talked about the surplus that came in at $9 billion as some kind of bad news story. With the $9 billion, we can pay down the debt. The federal government has paid down now something in the order of $55 billion, which is saving the taxpayers of the country $4.5 billion each year as an annuity going forward. However, we still have about $500 billion of debt on our books. The provinces have much less.
We should have a discussion and we should have a committee. We should look at and talk about the fiscal imbalance which is in favour of the provinces. I would be glad to participate in that.