Mr. Speaker, in 2004 the government made a promise in the Atlantic accord to exempt for 14 years offshore oil and gas revenues from Nova Scotia's and Newfoundland and Labrador's equalization calculations. It was a good deal, a done deal, and now the government is hell-bent to make it a broken deal.
Atlantic Canadians are furious and will fight tooth and nail to force the government to honour its signature on this political and legal document.
In this House we have challenged an Atlantic minister, any minister, to fight for the Atlantic accord, but so far neither the member for Central Nova nor the member for St. John's South—Mount Pearl have shown the guts or the integrity to stand up for their constituents or for their region.
We want to work with the government across party lines, across jurisdictions to fix the broken promise, but make no mistake, Atlantic Canadians will continue fighting until the budget is fixed and the Atlantic accord promise it kept.