Mr. Speaker, my colleague, the member for Regina--Lumsden--Lake Centre has been instrumental in getting this motion before the House today.
He is absolutely right. The whole initiative back in 1957 was to create fairness, to level the Confederation playing field. It started out with all the best intentions. Now we have politicized it, turned the bureaucracies loose on it, both at the provincial and federal levels, and we have had huge infighting. Government after government has been afraid to tinker with it. It has become like the tax code. It is so complex that where do we begin and once we begin where do we stop?
We are seeing the same noises coming out of Ontario. It is saying that it is missing out on certain aspects of it. I think that is what is stopping the finance minister and his Liberal minions more than anything. Once we start that slide into change, where are we able to build the dam and say that this is enough and we will not go any further”?
Whether Ontario's arguments are valid or not, it has a right to bring them forward. The Premier of Saskatchewan, the Premier of Alberta, the Premier of Nova Scotia and the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador are all there for the best interests of their people. The federal government, in taking on all the tax measures it has done over the last number of years, now controls the cashflow and the power. It is time for it to start to rework the whole Confederation, and maybe not just the equalization formula. It time it get in there and talk about strengthening the fabric of the country at all levels.