Mr. Speaker, it is difficult, but let us deal with the facts. Quebec is a high tax jurisdiction. Quebec spends more on a per capita basis. Quebec's GDP has flatlined. It has been flatlined for quite a number of years. Quebec is facing a demographic crisis. To nobody's great surprise, business is not going to Quebec; it is in fact leaving Quebec.
As a consequence, it ends up with policies which say that if Quebec gets all the money, somehow or another it will decide how it gets distributed. The problem is that there will be no money unless there is a competitive tax regime.
How does the member expect that Quebec will continue to carry on in the fashion that it is without a competitive tax regime? Why does he continue to think that it will spend in GDP per person way more than everyone else spends and continue to carry on without massive subsidies from the rest of the country, which is effectively what the transfers are?
I ask the hon. member again, does he think the first step in Quebec's recovery to being a contributing member of Confederation, regardless of whether or not it wants to separate, is to try to find a competitive tax rate and regime which competes effectively with Ontario, New Brunswick and the northern states in the U.S.?