Mr. Speaker, they come from Alberta and other provinces; that is correct. When we look at federal programs, we see that federal programs' monies do not always flow equally to every single province. They flow directly to different things in different programs.
We would imagine, in the end, that the country is made better as a whole by all the programs we have. The idea that we would take each and every program and allot the amount equally by province would, in the end, actually hurt Quebec. It would, in the end, actually take monies away from Quebec, not give monies to Quebec.
I do not understand the logic of the Bloc Québécois, which is insisting that, in this one particular case, we have to allot all of the monies equally by province, when that is not the opinion of the Bloc Québécois when it comes to many, many other programs.
I also find it a bit odd that the Bloc Québécois thinks it is wrong that Quebec decided to have its own program. We respect Quebec's autonomy. Quebec has its own program and British Columbia has its own program. The rest of the country had a different program. I would have thought that the Bloc Québécois would be very happy that flexible federalism allows Quebec to have its own program. Saying that the model used by the other provinces should also apply to Quebec, when Quebec has its own model, is completely contradictory to the general position of the Bloc Québécois, which wants absolute autonomy for Quebec.
I am happy that the new government removed the carbon tax as one of its first acts, the federal backstop, leaving the flexibility for each province to handle that the way it wants to handle it. That does not mean we are not going to invest in the economy. It does not mean we are not going to invest in clean technology. It does not mean we are not investing in the environment. However, there also has to be a general consensus on what happens.
I am also very pleased that the government, at the same time, announced the removal of the capital gains inclusion rate changes, which I had not agreed with. I think that was a very good step.
I think all the steps the government has taken by lowering income taxes on Canadians, building one national economy where free trade applies across the country within federal jurisdiction and asking the provinces to do the same, allowing for big national projects to be built, and allowing our energy and resources to go to market are bringing the government to the centre, which I think most Canadians want.
I think there is a willingness to work with the other political parties joining us in the centre to govern the country and make Canada's economy the best in the G7. We now have a real opportunity to do things differently than in the last Parliament, when we were always fighting and squabbling.
We can work together to build a stronger Canada, a Canada where Alberta oil can make it to market and can get to tidewater. We can have a Canada where big national projects get built in a fast time frame. We can have a Canada that respects provincial autonomy but understands that there are big national projects and national goals to fulfill. We can have a Canada where we all understand that in a changing world, where we are faced with a lot of challenges, we have to work together as a country. Whether we are Conservatives, Liberals, Bloc members or New Democrats, we have to work together as a country.
If I come back to the Bloc motion, it did not look at things, at least originally, from the perspective of the country. It looked at things from the perspective of one province only, even though other provinces and one territory were not part of the initial system. Nobody even considered them when it came to the motion. That is not how we should be looking at things. There has to be some logical coherence.
For my first speech in this Parliament, I am pleased to reach out to my opposition colleagues and tell them that I look forward to working with them on all our country's major issues and on various matters. We are here to stand together and build a better Canada.