Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of questions that the hon. member asked me and I would like to go through a few of them because I do not have enough time to go through all of them.
The first thing I would like to say concerns the government's claiming it is the great defender of health care by putting a few hundred million dollars in. That may be well and true, but if you put a few hundred million dollars in after you have removed $7 billion in transfer payments, what kind of arithmetic is that? Take away this much and give this much. I am sure the provinces will be absolutely ecstatic to hear that.
Looking at any place in the country will show the devastation in our health care system, lengthening waiting lists and people suffering. However, I will not get into the specifics.
With respect to the health care forum, those people were selected by the government to get the result that the government wanted. When the asked members on the health care forum whether surgical waiting lists were becoming longer and longer, the response by some of the members was that is because doctors do not want to work. That is what the members of the health care forum said. They said that doctors do not want to work and that is why we have increasing waiting lists.
The Minister of Health likes to say, as my hon. friend mentioned, that the answer is not more money but better management. That is like saying we are in favour of sustainable development. It is another motherhood statement. We need specific solutions as to how we are to provide Canadians with health care when they need it. Not once in the three years that I have been here have I ever heard one constructive solution as to how we are to make sure that Canadians will get their health care when they medically need it. All we hear is better management.
I have asked the Minister of Health time and time again what is meant by better management. Not once have I ever received one single iota of an example or a constructive solution to resolve or explain that statement.
We have put forward constructive solutions. They may not be what the government wants but they are what the Canadian people want.