Thank you very much. I apologize, but thank you for juggling the schedule so I could get my time in with the minister. Forgive me if I ask anything that anyone else has asked.
I want to focus on the state of our health care system, of which we've been hearing so much as we deal with the ten-year review of the health accord. I guess what I'm a little miffed at is that in fact in your address today you don't even mention the terms “national health care”, or “medicare”, or the Canada Health Act. There has been no attempt on your part, that I can see, in the estimates or your speech or your actions, that would say to me and to Canadians that you are concerned about the erosion of our health care system and the growing evidence of people having to pay for things they need, the rise of private health group clinics, the growth in P3s, and just the incredible erosion of our system without any sense that you're going to hold the provincial governments to task and try to craft a system that resembles medicare and builds on our principles.
Is there anything you can tell us that you believe in in terms of health care? I know in the House when I've asked you questions, you say you're a great believer in the single-payer system and in the five principles of medicare, but it seems to me that you're sitting back and letting privatization, commercialization, and erosion happen by osmosis, by stealth. I don't see leadership from you to actually fix the problem. In fact I see the opposite. We hear about, obviously, the money and the budget for P3s, which by all accounts are going to lead to further problems in terms of public health care. We hear about a federally sponsored trade mission going to the Caribbean to support private clinics that are marketing surgeries. We hear all the evidence from the provinces and no action from the federal government. I think Canadians deserve to know what your plan to save medicare is.