Mr. Speaker, obviously I reject the premise of the question.
I know that the member was not part of the previous government, but I do have to remind him that the previous government just simply did not answer the phone when the provinces called. We know this. We know that there was a complete detachment between the federal government and the provinces. The provinces were clamouring for support. When we were first elected, they were pounding on our doors for support. We know and remember this. We do not want to go back to a scenario where the federal government simply will not even pick up the phone when the provinces are saying, “Hey, we have a crisis.”
Therefore yes, we have stepped up. Yes, we have invested incredible amounts of money to fix some of the problems that we inherited, and we still need to continue to work with the provinces and territories to ensure that we are doing this together. This is not about the federal government's coming in with an Ottawa-knows-best scenario. That is not what anybody wants to see. We know that we have to work together to solve the big issues, and I know that our government is prepared to do that.