Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear the comments of the member for Ottawa—Vanier and what appears to be a fairly typical Liberal response to the budget, which is to make it into something that it is not in reality. Nowhere is this more apparent than when it comes to health care.
The member for Ottawa—Vanier, like his other colleagues, has failed to point out in the course of this debate that in real terms the government has failed to implement the Romanow commission recommendations. The budget leaves a $5.8 billion Romanow gap.
The member, like his other colleagues, fail to acknowledge that with this additional funding in the budget today, the federal government will still only at the end of it all be at an 18% share of federal financing in health care.
The member fails to point out that the new money available in this coming fiscal year for health care amounts to $2.5 billion, hardly the amount required to deal with the looming crisis in health care in Canada today.
I want to ask the member two things.
First, why did the government fail to do the right thing, which was to implement Romanow?
Second, why did the government choose, when it had a choice, to bring in a $1.2 billion tax break that benefits the rich in Canada and the large corporations? Why did it not choose to put that money into the priorities of Canadians: health care, housing, the environment, child care and so on?