Mr. Speaker, there is essentially nothing that the Government of Canada can do to make the Bloc Québécois happy, so I do not know why we would spend a lot of time trying to do that.
One of the notable omissions from the hon. member's speech had to do with the Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador accords. As we know, this was a very significant sum of money, $2 billion, to Newfoundland and Labrador, and another $830 million to Nova Scotia, moneys that were agreed to by the Prime Minister after a great deal of negotiation and which have led to some other difficulties.
Part of the rationale for the government doing this was the very difficult fiscal situation in which Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia find themselves, with debt to GDP up around 62% in the case of Newfoundland and Labrador and around 38% in the case of Nova Scotia, I think, as well as declining populations and economies that are simply not performing.
One of the reasons that Newfoundland and Labrador finds itself in such great difficulty is that the Churchill Falls accord is so disadvantageous that the province is in effect selling its hydroelectricity to Quebec at a scandalously low rate, which effectively creates a great deal of difficulty for Newfoundland and Labrador in raising revenues.
I would ask the hon. member two questions. First, would he would support a renegotiation of that agreement between Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec so that the rates generated can actually reflect market rates? Second, would he support the passage of this accord which in effect in part makes up for the difficulties that disadvantageous agreement has created for Newfoundland and Labrador?