Good morning, everyone.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, for giving me this opportunity to share with you some of my thoughts on what, in my view and according to the conclusions of many experts, is undoubtedly the main driving force behind federal-provincial relations in Canadian federalism.
I will not revisit many of the points raised by Mr. Béland and Mr. Robson, who preceded me. I agree with them that not only is there an imbalance in the resources available to the Canadian government and the provincial governments, but also that this imbalance has fostered a certain degree of confusion since the adoption of the British North America Act.
This confusion has a major impact, not only on how parties operate, but also on the overall governance of the Canadian state, insofar as, over the decades, the various arrangements aimed at restoring a certain balance in the distribution of resources have consistently led to confusion about priorities. This confusion has a significant impact on the operation of government insofar as its departments, in step with the transformations of the political apparatus itself—meaning, in step with changes in the parties in power—will, in a sense, become the receptacles for these accumulated conflicts about priorities.
Over the years, program design has been particularly shaped by the various arrangements that must be made to operate. This competition between objectives means that program design is also reflected in the political debate on issues relating not only to the potential contradiction between priorities across different levels of government, but also to questions concerning what might be called the optimal use of public resources.
If we consider the overall volume of taxes collected, it is clear that not only the imbalance in revenues but also the mounting tensions surrounding the allocation of priorities mean that there is no overarching mechanism within the system to optimize the use of resources.
Equalization, in its latest form, may be a step in this direction. However, other methods of revenue distribution mean that the seeds of a growing fiscal imbalance are always present. Different governments will gradually, depending on their political platform, attempt to curb this expansion or attempt to stimulate it, to the extent that there will be a position on how to build the state within federalism.
This disparity in resources always gives the central government an advantage and inevitably fuels a push toward greater centralization and ongoing disputes with the provinces. The provinces often complain about the federal government's ability to spend funds in various ways and impose obligations on them over which they have little control and on which their citizens have not necessarily had the opportunity to weigh in.
I would say that's—