Thank you, Mr. Julian, for your well wishes. They are very gratefully accepted on behalf of the CMA.
I'm not an economist. I'm not a tax expert, but I am a family physician and I think that there is no question that the pandemic has fully laid bare the many deficiencies that exist in our health care system. Again, 5 million Canadians are without a family physician. In my province of New Brunswick and in neighbouring Nova Scotia, 100,000 people are on a no-doctor list.
I don't think Canadians are going to let this rest. The importance of health care is so critical. Good health care is critical to a strong and robust economy, and so again we applaud the government for the measures taken in budget 2021 and we look forward to honouring the commitment to primary health care teams and family physicians, who are so critical to the life of a good health care system.