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It's clear, it's logical, but it's full of holes you can drive a truck through.
First off, most important: It assumes no real portion of the federal debt. It assumes little or not real expenses for things like border controls, new agencies, the need for a military force, and many other things they have swept under the rug of "just some other things". You start talking full diplomatic requirements overseas, passport offices, citizenship, customs, taxation, additional police agencies, communications, air travel... the list goes on and on. There is no clear and complete list of all of those programs and all of those agencies and their actual costs to reproduce in full in Quebec.
Basically, the initial premise that Ottawa takes more from Quebec than it gives is somewhere between highly suspect and outrightly dishonest. Quebec profited as other provinces did from the huge run up in deficits over the last 40 - 50 years, and guess what, they have to be paid for. The country doesn't just run itself, the federal level isn't a bunch of fools sitting around drinking beer and burniung money in huge furnaces to keep warm. The services are there, and they cost.
This report was written backwards. The PQ decided the result they wanted, then they wrote the report to support the conclusion. It's misleading, it's dishonest, it's smoke and mirrors at it's finest, and it will certainly play well in Lac St Jean.
Alex
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