Mr. Speaker, the simple answer is one word, politics. The program has been twisted and turned and jammed and jimmied to serve political masters and political ends that it was never meant to serve. It should be a simple macro calculation of provinces like some of the Atlantic provinces which have a smaller tax base but whose citizens deserve fair and equal services and of the amount that needs to be transferred from the wealthier provinces to achieve that. Instead we have had all kinds of political manipulation of the system. I would suggest that is the reason the system is not clear.
I point Canadians interested in the whole area of the inefficiencies of the system to Professor Boothe's studies, pages 24 to 29. I do not have time to go over them, but I believe he makes a very concise and lucid evaluation of where some of the inequities exist.