Mr. Speaker, I do not have the House's consent. Once again, it is a sign of how this federation works. A provincial finance minister wrote to the federal Minister of Finance. I am asking for permission from the House to table that letter, which is a public letter. I have copies of it. It is not from a minister affiliated with our party. It is a letter from someone who represents Quebeckers, and I am being denied the right to table the letter in this House. That is how the Canadian federation works, and that is what we deplore. Once again, not one Quebec member from the other parties stood up to tell his or her colleagues that it might be important for everyone in the House of Commons to know what is written in the letter dated January 21, 2009, from the Quebec finance minister to the federal finance minister. Once again, we are being denied.
It is no accident that in one election after another, the people of Quebec choose members of the Bloc Québécois to represent them in this House. Once again, we are the only ones who fight to ensure that Quebec is treated equally in the federation. This will continue until Quebec decides to stand on its own two feet and stop sending more in tax money than it gets back. We still hear plenty of myths, including one that we have revenues only because we receive equalization. However, we send more tax money than we receive. That is the reality. Equalization is tax money paid by Quebeckers. Of course, if we receive more in equalization, that is because we have a larger population and we pay more income tax than many other Canadian provinces.