Mr. Speaker, there was no question from the hon. member. I guess he gave part of his speech which I enjoyed and I look forward to the rest of it after.
In all fairness to the member opposite and to others, it is a positive thing that the Minister of Finance, in his letter to the province, referenced the Ontario fiscal capacity threshold because if he had referenced the five province standard, it would have been less than Ontario. Some people of Newfoundland and Labrador were annoyed with the reference to Ontario because they say it would be something if they woke up some morning and they were better off than Ontario. They would not be able to sleep for weeks at the thought of it.
The reference to Ontario is positive because it gives us more room and allows more offshore oil revenues to flow into our province, before we reach the Ontario threshold. The other thing that complicates this is the national equalization program. We must be mindful of that. The Prime Minister has to operate within the parameters of a national equalization program that was designed and agreed to by the Prime Minister and the premiers of the provinces, so he has to be careful what he does with that, in fairness here.
All I can say to the hon. member is that I want this matter resolved. We must get back together on this and I do not think in all sincerity that it is ever going to be concluded if we leave it to the officials. That is where the problem lies now, at the official level. We must elevate it to finance minister to finance minister and prime minister to premier if we are ever going to sort this out. If we leave it to the officials we will be here forever trying to settle this issue.