Mr. Speaker, I hesitate to get into a wrestling match with one of my colleagues, particularly the member for Elk Island. I have a problem with his proposal as it affects equalization specific to the province of Quebec.
It is my humble belief, if we are to have good relations with Quebec and get back to some degree of amity with that province, that the best way to do it is to revert to the terms of Confederation, to the initial British North American Act, which clearly defined the rights and responsibilities of the provinces and the federal government and apparently with which all parties were quite happy 130 years ago.
When we get into targeted payments for health and education we are in effect overriding the original intent of the BNA act. Would it not be more in keeping with the spirit of Confederation if equalization payments were non-targeted and were ultimately based, as they are now, on income levels in the concerned provinces based on productivity? We can jigger the formulas and put in as many variables as we like, but ultimately they are a measure of productivity and per capita income.
Why not have totally non-targeted contributions from the federal government to the alleged have not provincial governments, rather than specifying this is for health, this is for education and this is for whatever?