Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the parliamentary secretary a question about the fiscal imbalance.
In the last budget, the government promised to correct the fiscal imbalance. That is the only reason we supported that budget last spring. We have noticed that since the budget was tabled, the government has backtracked every chance it gets. Only two paragraphs of the recent economic statement referred to the fiscal imbalance, and only in very vague terms.
We in the Bloc Québécois are very concerned about what the government's next budget will include. We have established what Quebec is expecting, in light of the Séguin commission's figures, among others. Various calculations have been made, including the one Mr. Séguin tabled in the National Assembly, which called for $3.9 billion, as we have done.
But the Conservatives are saying that Mr. Séguin never called for $3.9 billion. In fact, Mr. Séguin asked that equalization be based on the 10-province standard and include all revenues, including non-renewable natural resources, which represents $2.8 billion. He asked that education transfers be restored to 1995 levels, adjusted for inflation, which adds $1.1 billion.
When we heard Mr. Séguin say that in the National Assembly, we asked our entire research team to closely examine those figures. We concluded that 2.8 plus 1.1 equalled 3.9, so $3.9 billion.
I therefore wanted to know whether the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance reached the same conclusion. Does she agree that $2.8 billion in equalization, added to $1.1 billion in education transfers, equals $3.9 billion, the total the Bloc Québécois arrived at?