Mr. Speaker, I and this side of the House, I am sure, would like to congratulate the minister on his new portfolio and wish him well in it.
I suppose it should be obvious that one of the issues the Minister of National Revenue has to deal with is to continue to nurture and revitalize revenues so they can be redistributed for the various programs. The Conference Board of Canada recently did an analysis of the Ontario budget and came to the conclusion that contributions to equalization in fact exceeded the growth and projected growth in the Ontario economy. That bodes ill for the future of the Confederation in terms of being able to reinvest across this country from sea to sea to sea.
Other than on the area of tax cuts, I would like to know whether the minister, first of all, is going to assess very carefully on an ongoing basis the growth in the Ontario economy and its ability to contribute to equalization. Second, as part of an overall strategy beyond the throne speech, either in a budget or in other announcements, I would like to know whether the government is going to recognize the urgency with respect to manufacturing, in particular in Ontario, and is going to reinvest in strategies that would put the Ontario economy on a very solid and competitive basis as it relates to its responsibilities to contribute to equalization.