Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what we did at the January meeting. It is precisely what we did in the budget.
At the January meeting I notified the provinces that we would not be unilaterally shifting debt on to them as previous governments had done simply in advance of their budgets.
We told them there would be a moratorium of two years under which we would attempt through the good auspices of the Minister of Human Resources Development to renegotiate the whole fabric of our social programs. Therefore what we would really end up with would be more efficient programs, more cost effective programs. These programs in the end would not only save the federal government money, but would save the provincial governments money because they would be far more efficient.
In other words, our goal is not to shift the burden on to the provinces; it is to give Canadians better service at a better price.