I am sorry, a thousand millions. You are right. I get confused with the big numbers.
That is $2.8 billion that will be reassessed to the province of Ontario. I want those members across on that side to substantiate that being recharged by the federal government. They can stand up and tell their constituents that there will not be more money for, are members ready for this, water services. There will not be more money for the highway systems. There will not be more money for the hospitals. There will not be more money for the school systems. All of that will be because $2.8 billion has to be paid back by the province of Ontario. Let them tell their constituents that the federal government, although it was the government's error and the government was made aware of it and was not charging it, now will enforce the fact that they have to pay it back. I would like to be there when they stand on that podium and on behalf of the federal government ask for the money back from their Ontario constituents.
I have a couple of quotes, but first let me say $3.3 billion is a lot of money. Let us make no mistake about that. It is a substantial amount of money. That $408 million for the province of Manitoba means as much as this does to the province of Ontario with the different levels of population and, as I said, with revenue centres available.
We have had examples of the government's largesse in the past with respect to taxpayers' dollars. Just recently we have talked about other ad contracts that have gone to certain corporations, with millions of dollars attached to them. We had a program that was implemented by the federal minister of finance of the day just prior to the last federal election, the energy rebate program. Do you remember that one, Mr. Speaker? It was $1.3 billion that the minister of finance put into place in a very short period of time and distributed to whole numbers of people across the country. The reason I mention it is that it was $1.3 billion that automatically or simply came in and was expended, half of what is being asked to be retained by the provinces here. It is not really an issue of money. It is an issue of the political will to be able to say that the government should leave the money where it is, where it went to with the provinces.
Also we have heard just recently that there will be surpluses. When there is a surplus on the federal side and then the government insists that money be paid back by the provincial side, particularly by my province of Manitoba, the government is saying that on the one hand it has the money, the provinces do not have any, it wants the provinces to pay back what they do not have, but that is too bad, it will take the money and spend it whichever way it as a federal government wants to. Quite frankly, there are a lot of people out there who do not have a lot of confidence in how the federal government is spending their money right now, let alone more money that they want to ask for from the provinces to spend in other areas and in other ways, shapes and forms.
In fact, the province of Manitoba, in its previous administration as well as the current administration, in my opinion has done an exceptional job in balancing its budget. It now has a very small, minor surplus going into this fiscal year but it has done so with caution and carefulness. It has been done by two administrations, by two different political parties. I believe it has been done to the betterment of the citizens of the province of Manitoba, but if the government starts asking for more dollars to come back from the provinces, it will have a very serious impact.
As for the Manitoba solution, I would like to quote the Manitoba finance minister of the day, Greg Selinger. He stated:
Manitoba proposes that the solution to the problems arising from this error should be based on the principles of comprehensiveness and fairness, responsible action, and a concern for fiscal stability.
What he is saying is that Manitoba knows it has done a good job provincially to try to have that fiscal stability and the federal government should not throw in a monkey wrench that will cause the provincial government some serious concerns and fiscal instability.
He went on to state:
The full facts must be known, and the full effects of the decisions on transfer payments must be factored in. Any correction to tax payments for previous years must result in parallel corrections to transfer payments in order to provide equitable treatment and assure the integrity of these programs.
What he is saying there is that the government simply cannot ask for the $408 million back unless it goes back to 1993 and factors in what would have been paid in transfer payments had these calculations been made properly back in 1993.
This is not a simple issue. What is simple is co-operative federalism. What is simple is fairness and equality. What is simple is this: do not impact the provinces of Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba, particularly to the extent where they will pass on those effects to their constituents when in fact those constituents are our constituents as well federally. I ask, please do not do this to the province of Manitoba, the province of Ontario and the province of Alberta.