First of all, Mr. Speaker, equalization moneys are moneys that are obligated by the Government of Canada pursuant to the Constitution of Canada. It is, however, the obligation of the Government of Canada to provide equalization moneys to the sub-national governments. In previous instances this has been subject to a fair bit of acrimonious negotiations; some might say imposed, some might say forced.
However, with the passage of this bill it seems to me that a lot of the points of conflict that have existed heretofore prior to the bill in fact would be mitigated, because we will now have a floor. We will now have a floor and a ceiling. We will now have a floor, a ceiling and a formula to determine the difference between the two. We will now have a situation that provides predictable and stable funding.
I do not know how negotiations with the premiers and the Prime Minister over the course of several days, which of course were led up to by a lot of intense negotiations by officials, are in any way forced or imposed on any level of government. These are the moneys that are available pursuant to equalization and they are negotiated amounts. They are now fixed, they are now predictable and they are now stable.