Madam Speaker, I want to make a few general comments on Bill C-65, an act to amend the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act.
I must say at the outset that I have listened very intently to the hon. members for Broadview—Greenwood, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, and Palliser. I found their remarks on this topic to be most responsible and very interesting. After listening to those three hon. members speak, I wonder why we do not find solutions more readily in this House of Commons and why the government of the day does not listen more to what hon. members say about taxation issues and the other issues facing our country.
I come from the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. I have listened with great interest to a number of speakers today. They have talked about equalization, the fairness and the unfairness of equalization. Newfoundland and Labrador has a great desire to be a have province. I remind some of my friends from the west that all of the western provinces were not always have provinces. So the wheel turns and the wheel turns slowly. Some day, please God, Newfoundland and Labrador will be a have province and Atlantic Canada will be a have region.
We have great resources. We have a great natural resource base, as great as any in the country. The province I come from has oil and gas resources. We have a growing oil and gas industry. We have forestry resources. We have one of the richest mineral discoveries in the world at Voisey's Bay which we hope will be developed someday for the benefit of all of Canada but more so for the benefit of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The greatest resource we brought into Confederation when we joined in 1949 was our fishery resource. About 20 years ago the export value of fish products from Newfoundland and Labrador was about $3 billion. Imagine what that value would be today in 1999 dollars. Of course we are sad to say that successive governments of Canada mismanaged our most important resource. Our groundfish stocks have been practically eliminated and our people have paid a great price.
We can be a have province. It will take very good management decisions on our fishery from now on in to bring that back. We are going to need good decisions on our oil and gas, on our minerals and forestry and so on. We are struggling to become a have province.
I have listened intently to what people have had to say here today. I have listened intently to the equalization debate over the last number of years. What strikes me most about the equalization debate is that yes, we have resources that we are developing in Newfoundland and Labrador but unless we change the equalization formula accordingly, we will always be a have not province. If the federal government is going to knock us back dollar for dollar, for every dollar we get from Voisey's Bay when it is developed, or from our Terra Nova oil field when it is developed, then we are never going to be a have province. These are the concerns of the people of the province I represent. They are my concerns.
Unless there is going to be a significant and substantial change, we are never going to get to the level of other affluent provinces, such as the provinces of our western friends. We have to keep this in mind when we come to this great chamber and debate what should be truly national issues. It is not a regional issue or a provincial issue; equalization is a national issue.
I listened to the three speakers before me. They talked about this great country of Canada, about how caring we are in this country. Yes we are, or some of us say that we are. Sometimes that takes a lot of tolerance, understanding and patience.
I say to all hon. members that the best thing we could do in this chamber, the 301 of us who are here, is to go to the other provinces, the other regions of this country, meet the people and understand their problems and their issues. Then we would all be better versed to stand in this place and make constructive suggestions about equalization, about tax regimes and about every other issue that affects us as Canadians.
I find too often in this chamber that people bring their own provincial or regional perspectives and biases to the debate. Most times it is not out of general concern for all of Canada and all Canadians. Those were the few general remarks I wanted to make.
I have to say that have I found the debate to be very professional today. There was some great debate between government and opposition members. However, I want to go on record as saying that if we are truly Canadian, and if we come here to espouse a truly Canadian perspective, then let us try to better understand the needs of all Canadians because there are regional differences and regional disparities that still exist big time in the various provinces of this country.
I suggest to my friends from the west that they go to the east to gain an understanding of those problems. I suggest that they not bring western Canadian remedies to the House of Commons which they think are in the best interests of eastern Canada. On the other hand, we should not come here thinking that we know what is best for the west when we do not. I say that with all due respect. Too many times in the last 18 months or so I have heard too many western Canadian solutions for eastern Canada when the people who are proposing them do not truly understand eastern Canada. They do not understand its people, its solutions or its issues.
Let us be tolerant, let us be considerate and let us be ever mindful that all of the provinces which are now affluent, well off and have provinces were not always have provinces. Provinces today which are have not provinces could very well in 10, 15 or 20 years be have provinces, and those which are have now could very easily become have not. Let us not forget that can happen in this great country. Hopefully we will all be caring Canadians, we will be caring parliamentarians and we will do what is in the best interests of all Canadians.