Madam Speaker, in the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement there are shared costs for instance for infrastructure, water, sewers and so on which we have paid. We are doing the accounts on that. It would be as inappropriate for us to send the bill to Quebec saying to pay it without question as I think it is inappropriate for Mrs. Beaudoin to say: "Here is the bill. Don't let a senior civil servant field it. The Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and I will deal with it. We will just cut a political decision".
I do not think, when we are dealing with large sums of money, that we can do these things that way. There has to be proper accounting. Senior civil servants who have the expertise have to sit down and do the accounting. That is all this is, an accounting. We accept that. What we do not accept is the Bloc using it as a political ploy which it is. We accept it as accounting within our normal relationship with Quebec, or any province in Canada from B.C. to Newfoundland.