Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister of National Revenue said complaints about equalization were “mired in the world of have nots clamouring for more subsidies”. It amazes me how this minister can so easily display ignorance and arrogance at the same time.
All provinces pay into equalization so the so-called have not provinces can share the revenue of the haves. This money is not for the federal government's coffers and should never be a subsidy handed out by a bunch of Liberal hacks in Ottawa.
The Liberal formula is so screwed up that Newfoundland actually benefits more from oil and gas drilled in Saskatchewan than the citizens of my province who do the work. Provinces that see the value of their non-renewable resources go up, quickly discover the Liberals picking their pockets, undoing any hope of future prosperity.
Canadians would be better served by getting the Liberal Party and their holier-than-thou rhetoric out of this equalization debate. We must fix the formula so that all provinces benefit from their investments without going cap in hand to Ottawa every year.
What we really need to do is stop robbing Saskatchewan to pay Paul.