Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance talked about the Saskatchewan net to GDP ratio of approximately 25%. My information has it at about 34%. I wonder if the minister could confirm that.
He talked about the payments last year to Saskatchewan of $710 million, but he failed to recognize that there was also an equalization adjustment of $223 million, in effect clawing that money back. Therefore, the net to Saskatchewan was not $710 million.
I stated several reasons why I believe that non-renewable natural resources should be removed from the formula. There are many more which I will not get into now because of time, but one of the indices which I think is a true indicator of the net fiscal capacity or the net worth of a province is what I mentioned earlier, and that is the net per capita fiscal capacity. It shows that in 2003 Saskatchewan was the third worst in Canada with under $20,000.
Provinces such as Manitoba and Quebec had a higher net per capita fiscal capacity, yet they were receiving an enormous amount of money more than Saskatchewan. Projected for 2005-06, Manitoba which has a higher net per capita fiscal capacity than Saskatchewan is going to receive $1.6 billion. Quebec will receive $4.8 billion. Saskatchewan will receive only $82 million. I wonder how the minister can justify this as being fair to Saskatchewan.