Mr. Speaker, the government continues to honour the Atlantic accords. The member for Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte is referring to that I assume.
What the government is also doing though is ensuring that we control the rate of growth of equalization, and I made this clear to the finance ministers on November 3 so they could plan their budgets ahead of time. This is fundamentally important so the program is affordable for Canadians. It was growing on average at 15% per year. In a recession, as I am sure the member opposite can appreciate, that is not realistic.