Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to both my colleagues. One of the things the member for Brandon--Souris mentioned was that the people of Atlantic Canada in particular are in a different groove. This was also reiterated by the member for Cumberland--Colchester. He mentioned that we are not defeatists, as some parties think, not at all. In fact we see a great ray of hope for the economy of Atlantic Canada, nor are we going to be defeated by the way we are being treated by the present administration in relation to funding.
I just wonder if my colleague would comment on how Atlantic Canada has been treated. I am thinking particularly of provinces that have rich resources, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in particular. Others may have them also and in time they will be developed.
However, as our resources are being developed the only encouragement we are getting from the federal government is for it to say it is there, it is waiting, that we are to develop the resources and the federal government will take the revenues,. We will end up with no resources and be no better off economically. How can provinces, regardless of where they are geographically, improve their own lot in this country if, as they develop the resources and bring in revenue, that revenue is grabbed by the central government? It would be just the same as if we were being grabbed by a foreign country and were not able to reinvest in the province's concerns.
We can get on our feet economically if we get fair treatment. This is similar, in a way, to the clawback. We have a clawback on our resource funding similar to the clawbacks that we are seeing right now for Ontario, Manitoba and the other provinces involved. I would like the hon. member's comment on that.