Mr. Speaker, I have to agree with my Bloc colleague's comment about the fiscal capacity. The programs, which governments deliver to the people, the ones that really count in my area, are things like education, health care and highways. Those are the bread and butter programs that are delivered to people. There are a whole host of areas such as social services, environmental protection and game management.
When people think of government, they generally think of their provincial governments but these are very expensive programs to deliver. In a province like Saskatchewan we do not have the fiscal ability to really deal with these matters, which is why we have the longest wait list for health care in the country. It is disgraceful and, in my view, it is almost a violation of the Canada Health Act.
We do not have the fiscal capacity but Ottawa has lots of money. The government had $4 billion to spend on a Kyoto study but does not even have a plan for implementing it. It blew billions of dollars in the HRDC boondoggle. It has squandered goodness knows how many billions of dollars on the gun registry. It almost boils down to corruption. The sponsorship program would be one that comes to mind.
We have all this money in Ottawa and it is being squandered and wasted on low priority items while the provinces have to struggle with real problems and real demands from the Canadian public. I totally agree with the member.
I also want to portend an argument for my friends from Quebec. I know right now Quebec does not have a lot of these non-renewable resources but I know the province has a lot of potential. A lot of mining activity is going on in the province that is looking very promising, such as diamond mining. In the Gaspé area, a lot of people in the oil and gas industry are talking about the potential of that province having a great deal of oil and gas in the future.
It is not just something for the present for provinces like Saskatchewan that have resources in this area. It could very easily be that Quebec could be sitting on a whole lot of very valuable non-renewable resources and it will be its turn to be punished under this formula as well. It is something that every province in the country should be thinking about. It is bad policy and it definitely creates a huge fiscal imbalance. I agree with my Bloc member 100% on this issue.