Mr. Speaker, despite what the Prime Minister says, everyone knows that they are not negotiating very hard, since the provinces, or at least several of them, refused to attend the latest federal-provincial conference that the minister wanted to hold on this subject.
Second, the provinces are well aware that all the Prime Minister's answers indicate that, if they do not accept his point of view, he will impose it on them.
So I ask him if we are to understand that he is trying to break the poorest provinces by brandishing the threat of a substantial reduction in transfer payments.