Mr. Speaker, my colleague mentioned Saskatchewan in his speech, which is where I am from. We have listened today to a little bit about Newfoundland and how some of its federal representation is not looking after its interest first but is rather reflecting Ottawa back to the people of Newfoundland.
We have had that problem in Saskatchewan for quite some time. We have had a minister responsible for our province who has held senior portfolio positions throughout the years but very rarely has he been able to deliver for our province. When he was agriculture minister and in charge of the Wheat Board he ended up drafting and putting legislation in place which ended putting farmers in jail when they tried to sell their own grain. When he was minister of natural resources there was no movement in our province and no development of those industries. Later, when he was minister of public works, there was a long delay in his attempt to discover what was going on with the sponsorship scandal in our province. It is difficult to see how he has been reflecting Saskatchewan interests.
It is interesting that when we hear the public relations message in Saskatchewan from him and from his people, there are only three things in 10 years that they can really talk about and that is digging out the lake in Regina, building a soccer facility there and then being part of the synchrotron project in Saskatoon. My information on that is that he could only have sabotaged that project as the scientific community had already decided that they wanted that in Saskatoon.
The strangest thing that has happened recently, as my colleague has pointed out, is that there has been no discussion of Saskatchewan and its position on equalization. Because oil revenues have gone up, all of a sudden we will be kind of on the bubble of whether we will be a have or a have not province.
It is strange to me that neither the premier nor the minister responsible for Saskatchewan has really taken the lead in representing Saskatchewan's interest. I would like to ask the member if he has any ideas as to why that might be when it is so important to Saskatchewan that the formula be changed and be applied the way, hopefully, it will be applied in the maritimes.