Mr. Speaker, I came close to falling off my chair when I heard that the provinces rather than Ottawa might be behind the fiscal imbalance.
At the end of a long day when a lot of figures have been tossed around, I think it would be pertinent to question my colleague on this. Are we not in a situation where the federal government is going to have an $8 billion surplus, while in the same fiscal year, seven of the ten provinces are close to a deficit? Is that not an inescapable fact?
In his own argument, he gave us an answer which, I think, is meaningful and pertinent. He said that our debt to GDP ratio has declined from 68% to 44%. In fact, the consequence is that this government has to make the choice, now that its ratio is at an acceptable level, to direct more money to the debt or to adopt the motion before us and put one half of the surplus into health care and the other half on the rest.
Did the hon. member not use, in his own speech, an argument that should convince him that the Bloc's position, supported by all the opposition parties and the provinces, is the right one? Should he not remember, in particular, that the progress made in debt to GDP ratio is the result of the cuts the federal government imposed on the provinces, on the backs of the unemployed? When he says that hard work was done, I say to him that the federal government made other people work very hard.
The current federal government has arranged things so that many provinces have had to make cuts in health care. That has repercussions as far as the home care provided to seniors and basic services in emergency rooms. These are the people who have worked very hard so the federal government can get its ratio down to a reasonable level. Is it not time for the hon. member and the government over there to get beyond the idea of the ratio and ensure that the government does its part to finance health care, as all of Quebec and all of Canada expect of it?