Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. For those of us who were involved in bringing the Hibernia project to fruition in Newfoundland and Labrador, we know at that time that there was a similar debate which took place.
The hon. member and I were members of a provincial government at the time and we negotiated an agreement whereby we got to keep a percentage of royalties from Hibernia. If memory serves me correctly, we got to keep about 30%. That has helped us a bit.
Right now we are into the development of Terra Nova and other oil fields. White Rose and so on will come onstream before too much longer. We are going to be a significant player in offshore oil and gas in Newfoundland and Labrador. Hopefully we will have significant mineral developments and mining and the smelting of various ores.
However, the point is that we should be afforded an opportunity to develop our natural resources and keep enough of our royalties so that over a period of time we will become a have province. That is my point. I think that is basically what the hon. member is asking.
Yes, the federal government should give serious consideration to a formula that would allow us to keep at least a portion of revenues from Hibernia, Terra Nova, White Rose and Voisey's Bay without knocking us back, dollar for dollar, off the equalization formula.