Mr. Speaker, we are well aware of the fact that we are poised to take a more substantive role in the economy of our country. Again I have to remind the hon. member that what we are talking about here is a province moving ahead and a province being given the opportunity to become equal to other provinces in Canada. Simply put, what we need is economic development and jobs. We need to maximize the impact of our resources and resource development. We cannot do that with the current equalization formula the federal government has in place.
We have lost so much wealth in our economy due to federal government cuts in programs and the fact that the federal government has cut our health care system to such a great extent over the last five year period, a 35% cut in transfers to the provinces. We have use our equalization payments to make up for the cuts the federal government has inflicted on us in the past.
What I have been talking about here is an opportunity for not only Newfoundlanders but for Atlantic Canadians generally and provinces that receive equalization payments to have some sort of renegotiation of that formula to reflect the fact that they are have not provinces and that they should be given the opportunity to become equal, to catch up and to raise the standard of living in their province and increase the employment rate as well.