Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the provinces are currently in a strong position to make interesting gains if negotiations take place when they are supposed to.
The current legislation expires on March 31, 2004. We have specific demands. If the bill is passed as it stands, the next election campaign will find the government making political promises for its next mandate, when it could have easily resolved the situation already. The government will make a partisan issue out of certain aspects of equalization management, which should be non-partisan.
We hope this is resolved as soon as possible in a healthy climate of federal-provincial relations, and not through blackmail. The best example of this is that the provinces are demanding that the formula be changed in order to take into account the fiscal capacity of the ten provinces. This is a logical argument.
Based on the current method, we have had for several years a system based on a sample of five or six provinces. It is suggested that, given Canada's size, the economy and the new reality, all the provinces should be taken into account. But this comes at a price, and it would cost the federal government an extra $3 billion.
It would be healthy to start negotiating now and see this process through. If no agreement has been reached by February or March 2004, when the current legislation expires, we will vote in this House according to the progress made in ensuring that the system can continue to operate and payments continue to be made.
Why give the federal government another excuse for saying it does not have to negotiate right away with the provinces. As far as including all ten provinces is concerned, the government could take an extra year to work on that, which would save a great deal of time in the end. We can never tell what the fiscal realities will be six or twelve months from now. We have seen what happened with the money the federal government had committed to pay the provinces. The current finance minister has been trying for the past six months to find the right excuse not to pay out, at the end of 2004, the money promised for health.
If there is a lesson to be learned in this Parliament, it is that it is much better to negotiate when we have the power to do so and when we have the time to do a good job of it. This is much better than to sign off on extensions of the status quo which, at the end of the day, will cost more money and will leave the provinces with no power to go after the money they are owed and living with the past.
That is why this bill, as it stands, is not acceptable to the Bloc Quebecois. Let us debate the issue. We will debate it in committee, just as the public will debate it, then the premiers of the provinces will make their demands. But let us not pass this bill until as much interaction as possible has taken place between the provinces and the federal government. I think that it is our duty, as parliamentarians and members representing Quebec in this House, to take this approach.