Mr. Speaker, the member for Repentigny has given us an overview of spending and of the money that makes its way into the Minister of Finance's coffers.
He mentioned the scandal at Human Resources Development Canada, with its new minister who is unfortunately not very up on matters or familiar with all the issues, because it was her predecessor who was responsible. But since he is afraid to answer, it is left to the minister or her parliamentary secretary to field questions.
I congratulate the member on giving the background and telling us about the one to three billion dollars that were probably misspent. I would also like to know what the member for Repentigny thinks about the advertising inserts the federal government sprang for in all Ontario's daily newspapers in an attempt to pin the blame directly on Ontario's premier, Mike Harris.
This advertising appeared in both languages and I cite the part in black “Last year, the Government of Canada's share of Ontario's health care spending was 55%”.
These are only numbers of course and sometimes a malicious spin is put on them. What premiers and provincial finance ministers want is for payments to be restored to 1994 levels.
They are not asking for an increase. They know that budgets have been slashed. Jean Charest, when he was here, said that, if Canada's health care system was in disarray, the Prime Minister, and he pointed at him, was responsible. He pointed at the Prime Minister, the member for Saint-Maurice, as he said this.
Today, the federal government has paid for advertising in all of Ontario's daily newspapers. This will cost goodness only knows how much, probably the better part of $1 million. Instead of putting this money into health care, it is going after Mike Harris, probably to damage his credibility with Ontario voters.
I would like to know what the member for Repentigny thinks about this.