Mr. Speaker, the only shameful thing about it is that the hon. member still does not believe the former finance minister of Quebec and the present finance minister of Quebec, both of whom have admitted that they have not harmonized the tax. For the hon. member to stand in the House and suggest that they have, and he is a federal representative of Quebec, fair enough, I would suggest that the finance minister who deals on a day to day basis with that perhaps has a better understanding.
At the outset of my speech, I talked about the difficult issues in understanding the economy, but I have no doubt that both well-respected finance ministers in Quebec, the former and the present, probably have a better grasp of this. In fact, they have been communicating back and forth with our finance minister on what is required to actually harmonize. For the hon. member to stand and claim that they have in fact harmonized in Quebec, I would suggest that the hon. member go back and have a heart to heart with the finance minister, because I do not think either the present or the former finance minister would agree.
Let me make the point on something that was referred to in a speech earlier today, and that is how Canada respects all of its provinces. With respect to the transfer payments, fundamentally, that is the federal government's role, to make sure that constituents in all provinces are treated fairly when it comes to health transfers, when it comes to social transfers. We need to remind all Canadians that those continue to increase. Health transfers to every province in this country continue to increase at 6% overall. On social transfers, we treat all provinces the same. Social transfers increase 3% every year.