Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Labrador.
We are here today talking about the great injustice that has been done this week by the Prime Minister and the Atlantic Conservative MPs.
There were a lot of good comments made on this side of the House by my colleagues about how Atlantic Canada got shafted here this week. I would like to make some comments and observations of my own to sum up what has really taken place.
First, because of the good fiscal management the previous Liberal government and the hard work of Canadians, we have roughly $10 billion extra to spend on our budget. So what happened at the cabinet table? Why do we lose money instead of gaining money when the budget was done? What does it mean when equalization payments are cut and regions in our province have to do with less?
In terms of money, what do we lose? The provinces have less money for roads. They have less money for social assistance, funds for schools, hospitals, and also for farmers. It means that our people are not given the tools and the resources to live dignified lives.
Not only have we been left out of meaningful amounts of transfer payments in the Atlantic provinces but we also noticed, over the last year and a half, all the cuts that were made on our social payments. It is unbelievable.
Where is the money for the Atlantic Canada gateway initiative? The hon. member for Central Nova talked about it. It is not in the budget. We do not see the money. We do not see the announcement of that money.
He talks about the future of oil and gas. That is unknown. We want to see the money now. We want to see the $10 billion share.
Where is the money for the small craft harbours? It is not mentioned in the budget. Something happened at that cabinet table. The Atlantic cabinet ministers must have been left out.
Let me recap. The taxpayers of Canada have given the Conservative government $10 billion more to work with and the government never gave a cent to Atlantic Canada. Why are the Conservatives entrusted with this money? Why are they neglecting Atlantic Canada?
Let me be clear. The Conservative Atlantic MPs over there, on the opposite side, should do the honourable thing and vote against this budget and stand up for Atlantic Canadians.