Madam Speaker, in my hon. colleague's earlier remarks he referred to Bill C-76, particularly the Canada health and social transfer, somehow implying that our change to a block funding format is reducing the flexibility or changing the control the province has in the areas of health, education and social assistance.
I sat on the finance committee and listened to witness after witness say that they were concerned the strategy was quite the opposite, that perhaps the block transfer gave too much flexibility to the provinces.
The hon. member must be able to defend that. The people of Canada are seeing just the opposite. Under Bill C-76 we are not infringing upon or tying the hands of the provinces but doing quite the opposite. We are giving them far more latitude, far more opportunity to spend the moneys transferred to the provinces in the way they see as best.
There were questions earlier of my hon. colleague, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance, that said we were somehow creating new guidelines and controls on the provinces. However, as the parliamentary secretary indicated very clearly, the words mutual consent are just that. The provinces would have to agree to any new standards and guidelines and if they did not, fair game.
How can the hon. member convolute Bill C-76, particularly the Canada health and social transfer, into any kind of representation that the federal government is trying to put more controls and more strings on the provincial responsibilities and ability to use their funding in those areas?