Madam Speaker, I have a couple of comments on what the hon. member said.
One comment concerns the property tax issue. He is correct that the auditor general has flagged it as an issue of concern. The federal government has indicated that the property tax issue is one that the provinces and the federal government are continuing to discuss. It is a bit of a difficult situation.
Some provinces were recommending that we go to market value assessment although it does not necessarily allow a province to generate the same type of revenue when we compare the market value assessment of a home in British Columbia equivalent to a home in Quebec for instance. That has some flaws in it as well. For the information of the hon. member, the property tax issue would remain on the agenda until there was a solution that is acceptable to the provinces and to the federal government.
The hon. member also went on to talk about the impact on British Columbia that commodity prices are having and why British Columbia is not receiving any sort of equalization given the economic turmoil it is going through. I advise the hon. member that there is a fiscal stabilization program. The federal government compensates even the have provinces if their revenues decline more than 5% due to economic circumstances. Even for the have provinces there is a safety net with respect to drops in revenue.
The hon. member said that equalization provides a disincentive for provinces to raise revenues. It is hard to believe that a have-not province would take into consideration the fact that it is receiving equalization and based on that receipt of equalization that it would not engage in any type of economic activity, that it would not want to create employment for its people. I dispute the argument that equalization is a disincentive to provincial economic development.
I offer the opportunity to the hon. member to speak to that, to put himself in the shoes of a provincial finance minister or premier who would say “I am not going to work in partnership with businesses in my community because we are receiving equalization. We do not want any sort of economic development in this province until we have no more equalization and then we will engage in economic development”. I just do not follow that argument.