Thank you.
I'm a bit gobsmacked to hear these big numbers being thrown out about budget allocations. Five percent of a health budget would be about $10 billion, which is five times what is currently being spent here, at a time when we're hearing that the health care system already doesn't have enough money and five million Canadians don't have a family physician. According to the Fraser Institute report today, wait times have never been longer in this country.
We're coming up on a health accord that is supposed to address some of this, and you're suggesting that we should pull money out of the front lines of the health care system. I have to ask you, what is $10 billion going to buy that it's not buying now? How on earth can that be a greater priority than dealing with health care, whether it's seeing a family physician, or, heaven forbid, going to an emergency room and being told that you're going to have to wait longer, or trying to get a knee or hip replaced and being told that instead of three months it's going to take six months?