Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member knows, the Minister of Human Resources Development is engaged in discussions with his provincial colleagues on establishing a common vision, a common set of values and objectives in terms of the protection of our social programs and the direction in which they would like to see these go. This is a very important forum. Indeed it is a very important process as Canadians in the 1990s take a look at themselves and what the basic values are that they would hold to.
In addition, the hon. member will remember that in the budget announcement we set out that the principles of the Canada Health Act would remain intact. In fact this government intended to go to the wall to protect those. At the same time we established the principle that one could not impose a residency requirement in terms of welfare. The wisdom of that has already been demonstrated by the Minister of Human Resources Development in events of which the member has full knowledge.
It is very important to note that the Prime Minister, the Minister of Health and I have stated unequivocally, and I repeated this yesterday in a meeting with the finance ministers, our intention to not allow that the cash would eventually run out to nothing as is currently the case. Our intention to stabilize the cash component of the CHST is a very important component.