Mr. Speaker, I listened with careful attention to the comments of the parliamentary secretary for finance in urging quick passage of the bill that is now before us. He went to great pains to say and in fact repeated I do not know how many times, but ad nauseam, that this is nothing more than an insurance policy to make sure that the current equalization regime continues after April 1 in the unlikely situation that the federal government does not finally get it together to put a new agreement in place.
I heard what the parliamentary secretary said, but there were a lot of things he did not say. What he did not say was that there are inequities in this regime and that in fact the provinces have been pushing for a very long time for changes. On the eve of Parliament virtually collapsing because of the paralysis of two battling male egos, each of whom will not put the interests of the country and the interests of Parliament first, what he did not say anything about is why we find ourselves without that new agreement finally reached.
The second thing the parliamentary secretary did not say anything about is that the provincial premiers and finance ministers are unanimous in asking for these changes to go ahead, not at some future date but at the time of the expiry of the agreement, which is 2004.
I wonder if the parliamentary secretary could please explain to us why we find ourselves in this situation where the inadequacies, the inaccuracies, and the inefficiencies of the current formula are going to be continued because the government has not dealt with this in a timely fashion.