Clearly, the one step that has been taken is I think the recognition now that there is provincial ownership of resources. That's clearly been recognized. It has been recognized that 100% of those resource revenues, at least by option, should not be included. The most practical and tangible move forward is simply to eliminate this concept of a cap.
There is another alternative, which is to replicate, in Saskatchewan's case, something akin to the accord that has been signed with the Atlantic provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.
We have always advocated first the fundamental change to the principle of equalization that recognizes that these resources are the property of the people of Saskatchewan or the property of the people of whichever province or territory, and that they are non-renewable resources because by definition they can only be extracted and their benefit can only be achieved on one occasion. If the people of Saskatchewan are not permitted to use these one-time resources to build infrastructure, to build for the educational needs, to build that capacity for a long-term prosperous economy now, that opportunity will never arise again.
I note that some many decades ago, the people of Alberta were afforded this opportunity through an arrangement with the then national government, to use those resources to build what has resulted in likely the strongest economy in North America. We have celebrated and rejoiced that Atlantic Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, have been provided for their offshore resources an accord. It is better, we say, to get the principle right.
So if we've moved halfway in the recognition that 100% of resource revenue should be excluded, why then turn around and create exactly the same circumstance that existed before that recognition so that the people of Saskatchewan, unique in Canada, are left to export the value of their resources to other Canadians instead of allowing this province to do what others are being permitted to do?