Mr. Speaker, the member of the Reform Party who spoke previously said that revenue from hydro power is not equalized and is not included in the equalization formula. Once again the member is wrong and the party is wrong. It is included in both those ways.
I have a couple of comments for my colleague from the Bloc. We on this side have certainly stressed that anyone who knows anything about the equalization program knows that it is not a form of charity. This equalization program, through which moneys are transferred from parts of the country that are technically at that particular time so-called have provinces to the other parts, is designed to make the country more efficient. It is not a form of charity.
As I have said earlier today and as others have said, there are all sorts of flows from one province to another province. British Columbia benefits from the maritimes. The maritimes benefit from British Columbia. Saskatchewan benefits from Newfoundland. Newfoundland benefits from Saskatchewan and so on. It is not a form of charity.
With respect to the Bloc member's remarks about Ontario and places on the periphery of Ontario, I heard him say that in some way people asked for tenders on contracts and the nearer bidders had some great advantage. There are parts of Ontario which are a two day drive by truck, if it is a truck type contract, from where we stand today or a day and a half drive from Toronto. The main population of the province of Quebec is a five hour drive from Toronto and an hour and a half or a two hour drive from Ottawa.
On this business of where is the periphery, if we think in some way where the centre of gravity of the population of Canada is, it is in southern Quebec and southern Ontario. If people have concerns about being on the periphery perhaps they are elsewhere. Those things are beside the point.
I remind members and people watching the debate that what we are discussing today is the equalization program, the program under which moneys each year are transferred from some parts of the country to other parts. This equalization program is one of the cornerstones of the way we share wealth in Canada and of the ways in which we make Confederation work.
We are debating it now because every five years the way we do this is subject to major review. That review involves all the players, all the provinces, whether they be have or have not. In this case the discussions have been going on for two years and the decisions have to be made by March 31. We are doing it now with a view to establishing what this program should be like this year and for the next five years. It has to be done by March 31, which is why we are going through this trouble.
The thing that shocks me is that I hear literally combined opposition from the Reform Party and the Bloc. It concerns me. I think there should be criticism. That is the purpose of the debate. We should air all these issues. Members come from every part of the country. They have had the opportunity to talk to their provincial colleagues and hear what they think and what they have said during the two years of negotiation. They can come to the House and present those views.
What I sense is that we have here two parties that are not interested in the effective running of Confederation. I think that is because they underestimate the nature and the strength of the wonderful country we live in and the way that it functions.
What we have is unique. Perhaps there is one other jurisdiction which could be compared to it. We have the strongest decentralized democracy in the world. We have strong, however we define strong, provincial governments and regional governments. Even our territorial governments are becoming stronger and stronger year by year, giving their people a voice in their regions and in the country as a whole.
This decentralized democracy, our Confederation, is one of our great strengths. It is based on all sorts of things. One is our Constitution. Another is constant flows in federal-provincial relations. At the present time we have the social union, an agreement to which the premiers and the Prime Minister have just agreed. It is the latest round in how we should run Confederation in those particular respects.
I like the fact that mobility was emphasized this time. There are advantages to having regional governments, but that should be balanced against having proper flows of students, workers and others between different parts of the country. There are huge benefits from Confederation.
The regions can benefit from the strength of the whole. A recent very simple example of that is that the federal government has just put every elementary school and high school on the Internet, many years before that same situation is achieved in the United States.
I accept the fact that elementary and high schools are under the jurisdiction of the provinces and territories. No one objects to the fact that the only government in the country that could very quickly modernize our schools and get them onto the Internet is the federal government.
That is an example of the parts benefiting from the whole. The resources of the whole can be brought to bear on this small but very important thing in an area by the way of traditional provincial jurisdiction.
The whole can also benefit from the parts. In some ways the members from Quebec, for example, describe the equalization as charity and feel somehow beholden to the centre, but the flows are in both directions.
In this country we had the huge advantage when health care came in of having one province, Saskatchewan, that had implemented a universal health care program, had run and tested it. I have no doubt it made mistakes and modified it so that when the whole country came to the idea it might want a health care system all it had to do within its own jurisdiction was look at one part for a working model already tested that the whole country could take.
We know, despite the problems there have been in recent years, the success that health care program has been. I suggest there are many other examples of the whole benefiting from the parts and I can discuss those at another time.
This equalization program is one of the cornerstones of this country. It has played a major role in defining our wonderful federation. The equalization ensures that all provinces have the resources needed to provide reasonably comparable services to Canadians no matter where they live. My colleagues have stressed that.
Equalization is an unconditional federal payment. Once the money is transferred the provinces can use it any way they wish. Given the time constraints, that this must be decided by the end of March, I urge all members of the House to support this legislation.