Mr. Speaker, the member for South Shore talked about the fact that equalization or what Nova Scotia and Newfoundland are asking for is not rocket science. It is not rocket science when they are asking for something that no one else gets, that is preferential treatment.
We should go back to the original principles of equalization. The way equalization is supposed to work is that when a provincial government gets better off by a dollar its equalization goes down by a dollar. When its revenues decline its equalization increases.
In rare circumstances the federal government has reached some accommodations with certain provinces that departs from this. It happened with Quebec for asbestos, Saskatchewan for potash, and Nova Scotia and Newfoundland through special accords. Nova Scotia and Newfoundland are allowed to keep 30 cents on the dollar or more from revenues raised from offshore oil and gas.
It was in the 1980s that the governments of Nova Scotia and Canada discussed the ownership of offshore resources. Both governments agreed that Nova Scotia should be allowed to tax offshore resources as if it owns them.
The member for South Shore talks about the offshore accord. Has he skimmed through it and does he realize that once triggered Nova Scotia is able to shelter about 90% of offshore revenues against equalization? That comes down over 10 years or until it is clawed back. However the equalization was never meant to provide an ongoing benefit. It is meant to be a transfer from the so-called have provinces to the have not provinces.
If oil and gas revenues from Alberta were also excluded, we might be paying equalization to Alberta. How would the member for South Shore feel about that?