Senator Plett: No, Senator Dupuis, I think your understanding is pretty clear. It’s definitely the federal government getting involved in helping develop a green plan for the Prairies.

The Prairie provinces are saying, “We are doing that, and we are doing it much better than the federal government could do.” As the Province of Quebec very regularly says, “We can run our programs better than the federal government can run our programs.”

In my opinion, the issue here is not whether this is a laudable goal; it probably is. The provinces are saying, “We are well on the way to doing that. We don’t want interference from the federal body. We can govern ourselves on this, and that’s what we want. We don’t want you putting your nose in. To us, this would be Big Brother taking over.”

I really think the only difference here is not a difference of opinion in what should happen in the Prairie provinces. This is a difference of opinion in that I, as a Manitoban, don’t particularly want the federal government — whatever federal government that is — coming in and dictating on an issue that, I believe, Manitobans are better capable of handling themselves.