I would only add that one of the benefits of federal leadership on this issue is that if you think about the transfer programs that now exist between Ottawa and the provinces, of which a portion goes to social welfare spending, a portion to post-secondary, and a portion to health care, and if you think about the implications of those being cut by a third back in the 1990s for what appeared to be unavoidable fiscal reasons at the time, each province has its own matching proposition, where the feds contribute and they contribute. If the federal fiscal system, through refundable tax credits, brought people above a poverty line, many of them would no longer be eligible for provincial welfare, which would then open up the provincial option of using their matching dollars for whatever they want: education, further investment in health care, programs around child nutrition, whatever fell within provincial jurisdiction that the provinces wanted to pursue in their own way.
In a general sense, I am for confederalism. That means that I believe in the equality of the provinces and the federal government, in certain parts of the constitution. If we use the federal government's tax authority, it will free up resources for the provinces and allow them to work towards their own objectives, in a manner that recognizes social instruments, especially in Quebec and the other provinces. The provinces have the right to use them as they please.