Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague from West Nova for his very articulate and impassioned debate and speech.
One of the things that I would like the member to expand on is the fact that the motion calls upon the government not to abandon the principles of equalization. One of those main principles, of course, is that provinces that have necessary resources are able to balance those resources with the provinces that do not have the necessary resources so that services and programs are roughly equivalent across this country.
If we look at Atlantic Canada, we can see that there are many challenges there. If we look at the province of Quebec, of course, it is a have not province now because of the policies of the separatists, but I am wondering about this. I know that technically the province of Quebec can take the $693 million that it got out of the increase in equalization and can do whatever it wants with that money. Does it not seem a bit strange, though, that Quebec would take that money to reduce taxes after the provinces have complained bitterly to the federal government that they need the resources to provide health care and education to their citizens?