Mr. Speaker, I accept the hon. member's comments that he was not lecturing. However, I do not accept some of the things he said. Let me just make a few points in the very short time I have.
First, hanging our hat on a specific program is what government is about. In government we do not have the luxury to gadfly around a pick one policy one day and another policy the next. We pick a policy that we feel is good for our constituents and we go with it. That is what has happened here.
Again, the premiers of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland realized this was a good policy and they decided to go with. If other provinces have not picked up on it, I can only say that they do not understand the situation as fully as they should.
With regard to what the hon. member said about increasing the GST rebate to the individuals, I think that betrays to some extent two things. First, that the hon. member does not quite understand what the transitional funding is. But more particularly, it betrays the fact that there are chasmic differences between the Reform Party and the Liberal Party because in the Liberal Party we do not necessarily think that the best way to deal with funding to assist a province is to put it directly in the hands of the consumer in all ways. There may be moneys that are better administered through the provincial government. In this case, this is what we have done and what we support.