Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question because it gives me an opportunity to put a number of issues discussed over the past few weeks into perspective. Within a federation, it is natural for conflicts to arise between the federal government and the provinces. I feel that this government has been relatively successful in recent months at resolving conflicts.
For example, not only do we have the infrastructure program which has been a success across the country, and particularly in Quebec, but we also have a number of agreements such as the St. Lawrence action plan which provided an additional $191 million to the $526 million infrastructure program. This extra money will be spent in Quebec. We have also negotiated agreements on the Sainte-Marguerite River, the Montreal Botanical Garden and, most important, on equalization payments.