Mr. Speaker, we have had numerous meetings with the ministers of finance of the provinces. The minister of HRD has had numerous meetings with his counterparts in the provinces. The provinces understand full well the nature of the federal fiscal dilemma. They understand also that it is very important that the federal government get its fiscal house in order because that has enormous benefits for them.
What the provinces said to us was no surprises and there are no surprises. They said hit yourselves first and we have. They have said hit yourself harder than you hit us and we have. We have lived up to every one of our commitments. There is no hidden agenda. There is one very public agenda and that is that we are going to preserve the social programs of this country and clean up the nation's finances.