Madam Speaker, I thought just then that my Conservative colleague was repeating the remarks by the hon. Liberal member who told us that there has been a great reduction in the deficit. The great reduction in the deficit, we know—and my hon. colleague knows it, too—has been achieved at the expense of the provinces.
When the current Prime Minister began his term as finance minister, the federal government was paying 25% of health care costs. He reduced this to 12%. The Romanow report asks him to reinvest in health up to the level of federal investment in the early 1980s.
The elimination of the federal deficit has been achieved at the expense of the provinces, the workers, the unemployed. They have taken $45 billion from the employment insurance fund. Of course, that was at the expense of the neediest. They have abolished the support that had been available for social housing.
And obviously it is the same for the elderly, who were denied retroactive payment of the Guaranteed Income Supplement. That too was at the expense of the neediest.
My question for the Conservative member is quite simple. Is his party prepared to support the Bloc Québécois amendment to the amendment calling for correction of the fiscal imbalance? The provinces must have the resources they need to get back on track. Everyone across Canada recognizes that there is too much money in Ottawa. The elimination of the deficit has been achieved at the expense of the provinces and it is time to give them something back.
Is the hon. member prepared to support the Bloc Québécois amendment to the amendment demanding that the federal government resolve the fiscal imbalance and the employment insurance problem, and implement the 28 recommendations of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills Development, Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, which his party supported? Is the hon. member prepared to support the Bloc's amendment to the amendment?