Mr. Speaker, while the Prime Minister is threatening to cut off the money supply to provinces that refuse to accept the conditions imposed by Ottawa, the Minister of Finance is acknowledging that he has a sizeable margin of $8.7 billion for 2002-03. If they want to get the negotiating process off track, there is no better way of doing so.
Can the government explain to us the Prime Minister's obvious desire to set off squabbles by throwing oil on the fire?