Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to answer that question because it illustrates the point I have been trying to make.
The millennium scholarship fund stands as one of the best examples of the most misguided policies the government has ever introduced on behalf of post-secondary education students today and tomorrow. Let us use Nova Scotia as an example. It is literally true that there was no net benefit to Nova Scotia from the millennium scholarship funds. With every dollar of millennium scholarship funds put forward, it was clawed back by the province, which brings me to the second point.
I am glad the parliamentary secretary brought this up, perhaps inadvertently, but if it was wilful I thank him for his sense of fairness and even-handedness. I made a note when the parliamentary secretary of finance said earlier that I would be delighted that an extra $151 million would be going to Nova Scotia for it to spend as it saw fit.
What is a serious problem is that when the government introduced the millennium scholarship fund it did nothing to protect the funds against a provincial government clawing them back. Clawbacks are happening with the child tax credit where dollars are needed by the most needy families. Clawbacks are happening with respect to education funds. Clawbacks are happening with respect to housing funds.
The government eliminated the best social housing program in the world. Canada was seen as an example of what a national housing strategy should look like. The budget of 1996 eliminated the national housing program. Canada is the only industrial nation in the world that I know of that does not have a national housing strategy to this day.
No, I do not agree that $151 million going to the provincial government, to use in whatever way it sees fit, is the way to go. We need national standards such as those that supposedly exist in the Canada Health Act, only the government will not actually implement the Canada Health Act by taking any measures when provincial governments violate it.
We need a pan-Canadian post-secondary education act that would establish standards and principles on which students could depend, wherever they happen to live in the country, so they will have access to post-secondary education. We need to do the same with respect to the other critically important elements of modern living that one should be able to depend upon wherever they happen to live in the country.