Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his wishes for the next 14 years but I would have preferred that he wished that Ms. Marois would become Premier of Quebec within the next year and that within a few years Quebec would become a sovereign country, while continuing to be good neighbours with Canada. Nevertheless, I thank him for his good wishes.
To deal with his question, there are important choices to be made in Canada. If we decide only to reduce income taxes significantly, we run the risk of increasing consumption of goods from China or other emerging countries. I am not against that. However, if the direct effect of that is to transfer the Canadian surplus to China, perhaps we would be better to develop a more flexible structure, to help our companies to obtain tax credits through investments and other types of services of that kind.
As far as child care is concerned, my colleague himself gave an example. In Quebec, we have developed a quality child care service that is the envy of all the provinces in Canada. We, and our colleagues from all other parties, would like to see this kind of child care in the rest of Canada. Nevertheless, if that were to happen, Quebec must be able to receive its share of the funding, full compensation, with no accountability.
However, what we find in the Speech from the Throne is the opposite. According to that document, in terms of shared cost programs in areas of provincial jurisdiction, the federal government is entitled to give direction and Quebec must re-invest in the same sector.
In the area of children’s services, we already have a program that is well funded, and if we received funding from the federal government that would enable the program to work even better.
Unfortunately, neither the Liberal motion tabled today, nor the attitude of the Conservatives, nor, indeed that of the NDP—who continue to believe that the federal government has the cure for all ills—will enable us to reach an agreement. On that score, there is work to be done. If Canada's federalists are people of good faith, they must understand that the best solution is to put the money in the right place and that Quebec must have the funds necessary for meeting its responsibilities. We want the sovereignty of Quebec to come quickly, but while we are waiting, since it remains part of Canada, it must receive its fair share.