Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Finance. In the Minister's budget speech, he mentioned, briefly: "becoming more self-sufficient." This was a very short section, about six lines long. The Minister stated that: "We have to become less dependent on the federal government and we have to raise more of our own revenues. At the moment, we have a limited capacity to do so and we have been living with a financing formula which discourages initiative and self-reliance."

Mr. Speaker, in the matters of raising taxes and arrangements with the federal government, I believe this is called a perversity factor. I would like to ask the Minister if he can explain what the perversity factor is.