Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary has said to read the communiqué. Many wonderful communiqués have come out of dark rooms at the eleventh hour because there was no other way to move forward. We have seen that with health care. We have seen it now with equalization. Every time the government gets into a jam, it forces provinces to sign on to something that is less than what they wanted because the government says to take it or leave it.
We know how hard it is these days for the provincial governments to keep up with the demands they face when the federal government has spent the past decade off-loading, ditching responsibilities on to the provinces. It is no wonder that provinces feel they have to put their names to these documents and get something so they do not end up with nothing. Except the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador said, “Stuff it. I am not taking it,” and he walked. The rest is history with the signing of a side deal as we speak.
This issue points to a very significant characteristic of Liberal governments when it comes to dealing with these difficult issues. They are bullies. Liberals think they are born leaders, but in actual fact they are nothing but bullies. That is how the Liberals get the job done.
It is important for us to remind the parliamentary secretary and his colleagues that the Liberals have ignored the provinces on this file for years.
I want to go back to other documents to which the provinces had agreed but which the federal government chose to ignore. I refer to a September 2003 document put out by all provincial and territorial finance ministers called “Strengthening the Equalization Program”. What did they recommend? They recommended all the things we heard about today: a significant injection of funds to reflect the needs of the day; and a 10 province formula to ensure that we would not have this silliness now of side deals. If we had achieved some movement on a 10 province formula, we would not be dealing with these side deals on oil and gas revenue.
It is important to point out that as we look at the program before us with this renewal around a five year equalization program, with its limited cost of living increase of 3.5%, provinces will find that in very short order their needs will be again apparent and the government will have to act. It is unfortunate that we do not do things on a timely basis. The government cannot seem to deal with things as they emerge so that problems are solved before they become so much greater.
In this case we have a less than perfect bill. We did attempt to amend the legislation at committee. Unfortunately, any amendment to the bill pertains to money and that is out of order for us unless the government agrees to a royal recommendation. We tried to improve the bill in terms of its financial aspects but it was denied and the government was not willing to accept the proposition and bring it forward with a royal recommendation.
More specifically, the amendments we proposed at the committee level were initiated by ministers in other provinces, such as from my province of Manitoba which has played a significant and major role in this whole debate. One amendment proposed that we have a cost of living escalator built into the bill that would go beyond the straight 3.5% as enunciated in the bill and would move beyond and look at the growth in the GDP. That was a simple solution and it would have cost a bit more money but the money is available if the government is committed to ensuring that the surplus rolling in is put toward the needs of Canadians and not mysteriously disappear into the woodwork against the debt without debate in Parliament.
Parliament could decide how to divvy up this expected $9 billion, $10 billion, $11 billion, $12 billion surplus if government is prepared to come forward and say this is what it is, this is what we want to talk about and this is how we can solve some of these problems. We would recommend that some part of that go toward complying with the provincial demand that the escalator clause in the bill keeps pace with the growth in the economy and reflects the growth in our gross domestic product.
That is a reasonable expectation because provinces need that kind of guaranteed increase in order to ensure that they can meet the demands of the future. It certainly is costly but I want to point out to the parliamentary secretary that we are likely looking at something in the neighbourhood of one-quarter of a billion dollars per year based on Manitoba finance statistics. I know the parliamentary secretary likes to dismiss those numbers and suggest that they are wrong and he is right. However, based on experience, I would say everybody these days who is not in the federal government and the finance department is right and he is wrong, but that is a debate for another day.
I will conclude by saying that regretfully we will be supporting the bill before us because it is all the provinces could get out of the government. We know big challenges are ahead and we will continue to raise those issues. We will continue to fight for fairness in this county and an equalization process and formula that recognizes the inherent importance of such a concept in our constitutional affairs and in the definition of our national characteristic and identity.