Madam Speaker, the member for Winnipeg—Transcona is an experienced member of the House. He will remember, particularly during the Mulroney years, that the federal government transferred a large proportion of tax points to the provinces for social spending.
I would suggest to the hon. member that this has seriously eroded the ability of the federal government to intervene in the delivery of health care and social spending by the provinces. At the rate we are going with the transfer of actual tax points, the that federal government would have little to say in this entire debate would be quite academic.
Would the hon. member support a return of those tax points? If after due debate the House decided that we wanted to reverse the process of giving provinces absolute control over federal money, how they would spend it in social spending, and turn the calendar back so that the federal government had more power and could intervene in setting standards and play a more active role than appears to be the case now, would the member support that?