Mr. Speaker, the whole point of a large part of my speech and the platform of the Reform Party with respect to reforming the federation is that we are talking about areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction. In their wisdom the Fathers of Confederation assigned certain areas, such as health care, education and welfare as areas best managed by those governments closest to the people. It is called the principle of subsidiarity and it makes a lot of sense.
That is precisely why we propose providing the provinces the flexibility they need to deliver those programs in a way that suits their citizens and not the bureaucrats and politicians here in far distant Ottawa.
The conversion of cash transfers to tax points qualified by national standards agreed upon co-operatively by the provinces would ensure a national network of social programs administered by the provinces but for all Canadians. Let us trust people locally. It does not take bureaucrats and politicians in this town to deliver programs. The provinces can do it for their own citizens very well thank you very much.