Mr. Speaker, I listened to the hon. member's speech, which I thought was quite a good speech. He was wrong, but it was a good speech.
He indicated that he was mystified by this bill. Then he went on to demonstrate that he was far from mystified by this bill. He thought it was for election purposes.
I put it to the hon. member that March 31 will come regardless of whether there is an election in this country or not. If the Government of Canada is to have legislative authority to pass this bill by March 31, then it will have to move through the House. I am puzzled by his opposition.
He seems to wish to put the bill at risk. He seems to wish to deny all the provinces the $2 billion that has been promised by the Government of Canada to the provinces as a supplement to the normal requirements of the CHST. He seems to wish to put at risk the equalization formula.
He then goes on and says how his province will be deprived. It seems to me that his understanding of equalization is seriously flawed. He seems to think that equalization should only go one way, which is up. He does not seem to understand that equalization can equally go down.
Mr. Speaker, you and I are from the Province of Ontario. Who would have thought this time last year that we would experience something such as SARS? Similarly, who would have thought that we would experience the blackout in August, which basically shut the province down for a day and a half or two days? Who would have thought that in January or February of 2003 the Canadian dollar would appreciate something in the order of 22%?
All of those have significant economic and fiscal impacts on the Province of Ontario, and probably determine whether it is a 5 province formula or a 10 province formula.
Ontario's fiscal capacity was reduced. When Ontario's fiscal capacity is reduced, those provinces that receive equalization have a much narrower gap. The consequence of which is that he is right. The Province of Quebec, the Atlantic provinces, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, would receive less money in equalization.
However, the underlying theory of his speech is that equalization should only go up, regardless of how the economy performs and how fiscal capacities are calculated.
I would ask him in all seriousness, does he believe that equalization should operate in an independent bubble, independent of all the fiscal capacities of the provinces, including those provinces such as Alberta and Ontario that are the primary sources of the equalization payments?