Madam Speaker, I must commend the member, for whom I have the highest regard, for his comments about equalization. All of us in Newfoundland are very concerned that these equalization changes could make our lives much more difficult rather than easier.
I want to ask the hon. member if he could clarify a point for us.
Sometimes the laws that we make in this House of Commons are what can make a have or a have not province. For those members from western Canada or Ontario who do not fully understand, Newfoundland has become a have not province because of an act of this House of Commons of 1967 which forced the province of Newfoundland to make a deal only with Hydro Quebec and with nobody else. The Upper Churchill agreement has cost the province of Newfoundland as much as $700 million per year, every year, during the seventies, eighties and nineties.