Mr. Speaker, this is simply nonsense. The government has never pitted one region against another.
When the government enacted tax reform in 1972 every single province received compensation over a five-year period. When Ontario was hard hit by the recession in 1991 and 1992 it received $1 billion in stabilization payments. When grain marketing dived in the late eighties the federal government provided $7 billion in assistance to western farmers.
I could go on, but all of these things are compensation. This is a further example of the federation working properly.