Mr. Speaker, I have a comment and then a question for the member.
A week ago Friday, I had the opportunity to sit with the finance subcommittee dealing with fiscal imbalance. A couple of the witnesses who were there raised some issues that I think would make all of us pause and consider some of the consequences in a more general sense.
One of the witnesses, Professor Bird, talked about Confederation and about the underlying foundations that allow us to continue to be a united nation and continue to provide the same security of services all across Canada notwithstanding the economic disadvantages that exist in provinces from time to time. He concluded that the very foundation of Confederation was in jeopardy if each of the provinces continued to piggyback on another province. He said that it was almost like the me too argument.
It made me wonder where this should stop. Should we be treating all of the provinces the same or should we be treating all of the provinces equitably? The argument has been well made in this place that equity between the provinces is more important than equality simply because certain needs in one region are not of interest to or a need in another region.
If an amendment were made to take into account the specific issues related to Saskatchewan that would basically mirror the Atlantic accord, does the member think that would be more reason for some other province to take this new step into consideration and then to make its case as to why it should also get a bigger piece of a pie that has not grown?