Madam Speaker, I guess I will leave the debate for another day as to whether Quebec actually receives more in services and other transfers from the federal government than it contributes.
I think the one thing on which we can all agree, as we in the opposition, on behalf of our constituents, sit and listen to member after member on the government side talk about surpluses, is that it is very frustrating and maddening to hear them talk the way they do about surpluses. What I think we need to do is ask what a surplus is.
I hear all the time from my constituents, and I think it is the same in all the provinces, that a surplus to the federal government is overtaxation out in the real world, especially for the so-called middle class. The middle class people are overtaxed to the point where, in frustration, they try to look ahead and see how they will raise their young children, how they will make ends meet and how they will provide not only a decent standard of living for their children, but hopefully set aside a bit of money for their children's post-secondary education. They are looking down the road and what the Liberal government sees as surplus, they simply see as overtaxation.
The Liberal government has the unmitigated gall to say that it has offered billions of dollars in tax relief, but when the parents, who are struggling to make ends meet, look at their paycheques and see a declining disposable income, they do not believe the government. When young parents see someone on social assistance living down the street who has the same standard of living as they do even though they work outside the home and are struggling to make ends meet, they know something is drastically wrong with our tax system and with the cut the federal government takes and then blows on scandal after scandal.
I wonder if my hon. colleague from Joliette in the province of Quebec has heard similar growing frustration and anger from his constituents as he travels around his riding.