Madam Speaker, I greatly enjoyed what my colleague from Joliette had to say, particularly his little aside on the problem faced by farmers producing flue-cured tobacco in his riding and the greater Joliette area. As a member from Quebec, he certainly educated me on the problem of switching from one type of crop to another.
I especially appreciated his saying that a farmer cannot stop growing tobacco one year and immediately start growing asparagus the next year. Apparently cultivating asparagus takes four or five years to develop. I have friends who are asparagus farmers on L'île d'Orléans, in my riding, so I have some idea what the hon. member is talking about.
Let me come back to the focus of his presentation, the government's lack of recognition of the fiscal imbalance.
We know that the Bloc Québécois fought for amendments during the negotiations among the three opposition parties following the Speech from the Throne. We managed to get the government to pay us lip service and recognize the fiscal imbalance.
By the way, just as a reminder on this Friday, the person who contributed the most to developing the concept of the fiscal imbalance, who put a figure to it and recognized it, is Yves Séguin, Quebec's former finance minister. We sovereignists recognized it a long time ago. We must acknowledge the work done by Mr. Séguin, the author of the Séguin report, which recognized the fiscal imbalance.
Now, I would like my colleague from Joliette with his economics background to explain a little further about the shortfall in Quebec caused as a direct result of the fiscal imbalance. He said it was over $2 billion, if I recall correctly.