Mr. Speaker, I do not know if I can actually point to many differences between the present federal Liberals and the Harris Conservatives in Ontario in terms of an agenda of privatization, deregulation and offloading. Both levels of government bear responsibility for the current critical situation we are facing and both must take measures to act in the best interest of common good and public safety.
In terms of his last comment around the Sierra club's report card, let me say from my vantage point that the provincial government in Manitoba is certainly working hard on environmental issues. As the Conservative member for Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough just said, it is pretty hard for provincial governments to deal with the cascading effect of federal cutbacks and downloading on to provincial governments.
Every provincial government would probably welcome the notion of national standards when it comes to water quality and would welcome some support and leadership from the federal government to try to address a very serious and systemic problem in society today.