Mr. Speaker, the member has raised an issue which has been raised by the Premier of Newfoundland with regard to resource revenues.
I want to ask the member whether he has actually considered whether the impact of the resources revenue and the additional taxation from those additional resource revenues is only a dollar for dollar reduction of the equalization payment.
I wonder if he has considered the new economic development and that those additional jobs created from that have very substantial benefits over and above simply the direct taxation revenues, the fact that there are substantial benefits for employing people and getting them off welfare, off social assistance and off other program grants like the TAGS program or the ACOA program.
There seems to be much more at stake here than simply dollar for dollar on equalization. The point is that Newfoundland is poised to take a more substantive role in the economy of Canada.