Mr. Speaker, throughout the member's speech, I was expecting to hear “open federalism”, and he finally concluded with “open federalism”. I therefore want to ask him a very direct fundamental question.
Initially, when the Prime Minister took power with a minority government, he said he wanted to respect the provinces' jurisdictions.
I will take the example of Ontario. I can only imagine what would happen if Quebec were involved. My question is this: why do the Minister of Finance and the Conservative government feel free to interfere in the jurisdictions and affairs of a provincial government?
Have they—the Prime Minister included—forgotten that when they were talking about their wonderful open federalism, it meant not shoving things down the throat of a province that does not agree with their ideas? They should not claim, as the previous speaker did, that this is simply a way of encouraging the province. The speech by the Minister of Finance was not encouraging. They are trying to tell a provincial government how it should act.
What gives a federal authority the right to interfere in a provincial jurisdiction?