Madam Speaker, the hon. member talks about competitive cities and health care. Currently in Newfoundland we have a royal commission holding public hearings on our status and our future prospects in Confederation. Some 53 years after joining Confederation, we have the highest economic growth rate in the nation. We had it this year, last year and the year before that, so we are doing quite well, but we are still the poorest province with the highest unemployment rate in all of Canada. I am sure the hon. member would agree that there seems to be something wrong with that picture.
One of the reasons for our lack of economic progress is the clawback provision in the current equalization formula, which keeps cities and provinces held back. Fully 80% of all revenues generated are clawed back by the federal government through equalization payments. Under that formula, it is impossible for any have-not province to make any headway, and most of the Atlantic area is have-not provinces. So we are going to have poor cities and provinces with poor health care as a result of some of these things. One of the main holdbacks is the equalization formula. We need a reduction in or the elimination of the current equalization formula.
In the throne speech, no reference was made to helping the poorer provinces find some kind of equality within Confederation. Would the hon. member care to comment?