Mr. Speaker, anyone who is listening to what I have said on the subject, anyone who knows how delinquent the government has been in ensuring that a fair and equitable package is in place to serve the needs of have not provinces, could not possibly suggest that I am advocating that if there are no payments after April 16, then that is just tough.
My point is that the government has been in place for 10 years and there has been a need for adjustments all the way along, including the lifting of a ceiling that only now is the federal government finally prepared to do when it has been punishing Canadians for 10 years.
There is something pathetic about the fact that we find ourselves here in October saying that we need a contingency plan, that we need to take the pressure off the federal government, the heat off the federal government and remove the hammer that is there to press the federal government in case almost six months from now it still has not done it.
We seem to be prepared to suspend the very federal governmental apparatus that needs to be there to serve Canadians. I do not know how to explain to people that we are now at the end of October and we have to make contingency plans for the possibility that the government is not likely to function for the next six months. That is what is going on.
Embarrassment ensues every day in the House. We have the battling of the egos of the two aspirants for the prime ministership, the one who does not to move over despite the fact that he lost the confidence of his own caucus and of Canadians, and the other one who has not been elected to office but who hides behind the curtains most of the time and conveniently avoids addressing most of the major issues, but has his henchmen saying that the government had better not commit to any money because he will review every bit. This place is in a state of paralysis.
I do not think it is up to opposition members to help the government out of the fix of paralysis that it has us in. It is up to the government to do its job, to sort out its internal petty bickering and to get on with arriving at a new formula for equalization that is long overdue so the money can flow after April 16. It should not depend upon us to get it off the hook by asking us to rush through a piece of contingency legislation.