Madam Speaker, I have a hard time understanding how the member can claim the fiscal imbalance does not exist when we have a $9.1 billion surplus and we are living in a country made up of mostly have not provinces right now.
My problem with the way the federal government deals with this issue is that it has its own agenda and its own policy objectives when it deals with the provinces and, as I said earlier, it is very rare that those policy objectives actually coincide with the objectives of the provinces and the municipalities to that extent.
When the federal government brings its priorities to provincial matters it ends up setting priorities on behalf of the provinces. This shifts provincial authorities away from the local needs of the provinces, the municipalities and the citizens toward the political programs and policy objectives of the federal government. It is clearly not in its own jurisdiction.
All provinces have different needs. Provincial governments are the ones that are closest to their citizens. It is their jurisdiction. They deserve the respect of the federal government. It is their constitutional obligation to deliver services to their own citizens and set their own policy objectives and priorities.
I would also like to point out to the hon. member that in the Speech from the Throne amendment the government went at least half way to agreeing that some people say that a fiscal imbalance exists. I look forward to the day when the government actually admits that the fiscal imbalance does exist.