As far as pensioners are concerned, they do not have to worry, I made that clear, and old age pensioners will not be affected, not in November and not in the finance minister's next budget. Mr. Michel Gauthier (Roberval, BQ): Mr. Speaker, will the Prime Minister admit that at the rate the federal government says it will cut transfers to the provinces, in other words, money used by the provinces for social programs and education, at the rate the federal government plans to cut these expenditures, according to our most accurate estimates-although the criteria have not yet been released, but we tried a series of criteria that seemed likely-we can say that in four years time, if Quebecers say no in the referendum and decide to stay in the feder
...[+++]al system, in four years time the federal government will no longer pay a cent in transfer payments for social programs, education and social assistance, and on top of that, under the tax points system, Quebecers would again have to send part of the province's tax revenues to Ottawa to help fund social programs in the other provinces?L'hon. Paul Martin (ministre des Finances et ministre chargé du Bureau fédéral de développement régional (Québec), Lib.): Monsieur le Président, selon le système actuel, il y a un déclin de l'argent qui devait être versé aux transferts aux provinces.
