Mr. Speaker, I bring to the House a sobering message because I am deeply concerned about what I see unfolding around me. I wish the Minister of Finance would take off his rose-coloured glasses and start to see what he and his government have created and the kind of divisions that exist.
We do not need to go very far to know that Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador has a deal that Saskatchewan wants to replicate. We do not have to go far to see Ontario hammering at the door. We do not have to go very far to know about Prince Edward Island, which is concerned about the consequences for its situation. We see division all around us. We see the very glue that keeps this federation together coming unstuck and causing enormous problems. I would hope that he is as worried as we are about the future of this great country.
The minister can look selectively at certain statistics, but he also has to look at some other reality around us.
First, we have to look at the country as a whole in terms of how it is standing up as a nation, vis-à-vis other industrialized countries. How does the minister explain that we are 19th out of 26 when it comes to child poverty and dealing with difficult economic and social situations facing the future of this land? How does he answer the fact that we are the only industrialized country in the world that does not have a national housing program? It means that the provinces are having to pick up the pieces because the government off-loaded its responsibilities.
I could go on in terms of statistics, but I also want to quote from studies that talk about difficulties facing Saskatchewan, since the minister raised that situation. I think he has even quoted from some of these studies. I quote from a document entitled “Equalization: Financing Canadians' Commitment to Sharing and Social Solidarity”:
--for Saskatchewan, which for reasons which appear to be irrational, is notgaining protection for 30 percent of its energy revenues, but rather is facing the perverse outcome of having more than 100 percent of its energy revenues ‘taxed back’.
That is from Courchesne in 2004 and it is the problem that the minister has said he is trying to deal with in terms of these one-off payments, which is hardly dealing with the overall situation, nor giving the response that he and his government gave to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Premiers of Manitoba and Saskatchewan want what we in the House. We want the government to finally give some leadership around a new course for equalization and to promote and accept the notion that it advanced so many years ago for a 10-province standard that includes all revenue, including non-renewable resources.