Mr. Speaker, I will follow up on the question that my hon. colleague, the member for Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte asked.
On that technical question, I want to know if that is on what the Minister of Foreign Affairs has based his decision to support this budget. It concerns me because I am looking at one of the budget documents, which says, “Restoring Fiscal Balance for a Stronger Federation”. It states on page 16, “These provinces can permanently opt into the new Equalization system at any point in the future”. It does not talk about opting in and then opting out. It simply says that they “can permanently opt into” that system.
Why is the word “permanently” there? Does it have no meaning whatsoever? If what he is saying is true, should this not say these provinces can opt into or out of the equalization system at any point in the future?