Mr. Speaker, I am sure that if the hon. member has a question he will address it to me after.
In supporting the provinces the government transfers federal funds directly to Canadians. This is done through old age security, the child tax benefit and the Canada pension plan. These federal programs further improve the standard of living for Canadians living from coast to coast to coast.
A lot of the arguments that have been made here today have been policy arguments. They have been arguments about federal programs. In a lot of cases, they have been arguments about the lack of federal funding. Members do not want a decrease in the amount of federal funds going into certain programs but rather an increase in the amount of those funds. Housing was talked about as was poverty and child care.
Members have been arguing about waste and allocations vis-à-vis each separate province. The previous member spoke about the amount of research moneys going to Quebec. That is not a vertical fiscal imbalance. That is a horizontal issue between what a province is getting, for what purposes, and when. Those are policy issues that have nothing to do with the motion before the House.
If I read today's motion correctly it basically states that the federal government should transfer, with no strings attached, moneys to the provinces with no horizontal issues at all. I fail to see how anyone from Atlantic Canada could support this type of motion which would take away all the federal government levers to impose some of the horizontal issues that we are trying to impose right now.
I want to repeat something I alluded to earlier. Provinces have the very same taxing powers as the federal government to tax resources, consumption, corporate wealth, corporate income, personal income, property taxes and payroll taxes if they need those funds to provide services to their citizens.
There is a fiscal imbalance and that probably goes back to when our country was formed in 1867. This level of government did not exist in the same state as it exists right now with our cities and municipalities. That fiscal imbalance has evolved over the years. It is my belief that right now our cities in Canada do not have the fiscal capacity to provide the services that their residents need.
I am not going to suggest here for a minute that the federal government is going to solve that issue. The program that was laid out in the Speech from the Throne will go a short way toward helping to resolve the issue of fiscal imbalance, but that will require further dialogue between the federal government, the provincial governments and the cities.
As I said before, I am splitting my time with the member for Mississauga--Streetsville. I would ask everyone in the House to think about the motion, think about its repercussions for our federation, think about its repercussions for the people living in the regions, and vote against the motion.