Madam Speaker, I am pleased with the remarks by the New Democratic Party's hon. member for Winnipeg North. I am also very pleased that she is a member of the special subcommittee on fiscal imbalance which I have the honour to chair. The committee will begin its work in Halifax this week. I think she has a very fine understanding of public finances. On the other hand, the parliamentary secretary does not appear to understand all his files, especially equalization.
I have one question for the hon. member. She has proposed an indexation formula for equalization based on growth in the GDP. With her proposal, what would happen in a case where the GDP growth were less than the indexation factor of 3.5% provided in the first ministers' agreement? Would the provinces not be at risk of losing, in fact?