Senator Dalphond: Senator Richards is right to refer to the fact that the source of the issue here is a contract that was entered into between the federal Crown and the Government of Canada in 1880. That’s an old contract. I agree with that. That is a clear definition of it. But the judgment of the Federal Court of Canada that was released in September, before the Saskatchewan legislature adopted the motion, is essentially about the scope of this contract. Since the Federal Court has decided that the scope of this contract does not encompass income tax, GST, excise tax or tax on carbon, maybe we should look at these issues carefully and make sure that what is left for Saskatchewan — Saskatchewan is forced to provide an exemption as long as the exemption is provided in the contract.

So if there’s not much in the contract, maybe we’re not talking about $391 million. Maybe we’re talking about the tax on capital according to provincial, Saskatchewan law for the periods that are not yet time barred. Maybe we are talking about a few million dollars. Maybe it’s something we should be looking at as you suggest. I certainly appreciate your suggestion and think it’s a good one.

Senator Tannas: We did hear about a large number here in debate and in the bit of work that I was able to do. That certainly appears to be the high side of things. The Federal Court, as I understand it, is a lot narrower. Nonetheless, it is still $100 million or something like that. It’s a lot less, but it’s a lot of money and there is still the issue of going forward. This has to stop. It should. By the way, so should Canadian Pacific’s obligations. They have obligations in perpetuity as well. The Saskatchewan legislature, I don’t think, thought to relieve Saskatchewan of that obligation that’s in the contract, but they do have an obligation to operate a railroad across the country in perpetuity.

Who knows? One hundred years from now, that might not be a good bet, but that’s for another day. The point is that there was this money issue. Just in the little bit of work I did, I agree, Senator Dalphond, that the numbers I heard from other sources, other than what I heard in the chamber here, are significantly less.