Madam Speaker, I certainly enjoyed the presentation by the hon. member for Kamloops. I noticed that he touched upon a few Reform themes like the issue of double equalization that occurs in some federal programs. He touched upon issues like western alienation, the effect of these programs upon his province and the effect on the inter-relationship of this with the equalization program. I acknowledge these. I do not want to say that he is a good Reformer but I certainly acknowledge these as rays of wisdom breaking through like the sun on the British Columbia flats.
Having said that, I would like to ask him about one particular comment that he made on the relationship between fiscal policy and the present economic growth situation. He was anxious to credit the current government in British Columbia with this, but it is fair to say that we have had a period in Canada over the past generation in which governments, federally and provincially, have grossly mismanaged their finances. One of the areas in which relatively good fiscal performance occurred was in the province of British Columbia. Corresponding to that we have seen rather healthy economic growth in British Columbia at a
time when other provinces are struggling with their deficits and debts at much more significant levels.
I wonder if the hon. member would acknowledge that there is this long-term relationship between deficit, debt and low economic performance and whether he would give credit to British Columbia governments over the years for having avoided to a fair degree that kind of trap.
Specifically in the case of this bill, would he recommend that perhaps in re-examining equalization in the future we look at whether the fiscal performance of these governments should be a factor in the kinds of equalization transfers that go to them?