Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to what the hon. member for Drummond had to say and that is why we will be supporting the motion, because of the clarifications she provided about conditions. Therefore we will support the motion because of the explanations she gave us.
On the issue of perfection, it is true that our government was almost perfect. People have a hard time believing in perfection. That is why they chose to teach us a lesson in 1993. Having said that, I simply want to remind the House that the then government started in 1984 to increase transfers to the provinces by $6 billion.
Hard times during the 90s forced the federal government to freeze its expenditures. However, between the election of the Mulroney government in 1984 and the freeze it had to establish during the 1990 crisis, $6 billion were added to provincial transfers for health and welfare.
This is near perfection. What is clear to us and what you can find out if you read our platform—and I am sure you have read it and learned it by heart—is that what we are proposing for the Canadian pact goes further than what is in the social union agreement. We are even more in favour of respecting provincial areas of jurisdiction than the current federal government.
If your copy of our platform is a bit the worse for wear I would be quite happy to provide you with a new one.