Mr. Speaker, my colleague from St. John's is a defender of the province of Newfoundland and I give him full marks for that. He is absolutely correct. There has to be a consistency within the programs across the country. There has to be a fairness. I have talked about fairness and equitableness. That is what has to come.
There is a real serious issue right now with the resource issues in the Atlantic provinces. As I said, there has to be a consistency. What is good for one side of the country and one province must be good for the other side of the country and its provinces. Specifically with the resource sector, specifically with the oil and gas, it should be that the Atlantic provinces have the same ability to retain those revenues within their own boundaries so that they can then pass on those services through those revenues to their constituents.
The problem is with the equalization and the transfer. We have seen this in other levels of services. When a dollar is gained from that resource and that source, a dollar is taken away with respect to the transfer and the equalization. Unfortunately the provinces never get ahead. They are simply saying that they should be given the opportunity to compete and the opportunity to have the same levels and standards of service as other provinces in the country. They are asking for the opportunity of reducing their taxes.
The CA has consistently said to reduce the taxes and make sure that there are lower tax levels and we will have the economic activity. That is true, but if the money is taken away on one hand when a province develops a dollar on the other hand, it does not have the opportunity of reducing the tax levels and being able to compete on that level playing field. There has to be a consistency. There has to be equity in this area. I could not agree more. That is the way this country was developed and built. That is what our cornerstone is. That is the equalization that we talk about constantly in our constitution. I believe very seriously that we have to be more fair and more equitable with regard to the Atlantic provinces.