Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to focus on what we can do moving forward to better prepare our country in the future.
It's quite clear now that hospitals are routinely operating above the capacities that they were built for. I note that the Brampton hospital, where Dr. Mohammad works, was built for 90,000 patients per year. It routinely sees 140,000 patients per year. Obviously there is concern about our hospitals' ability to deal with surges. We're having to set up tents and field hospitals.
Mr. Culbert, you spoke of chronic underfunding of our health care system and you said that's primarily outside federal jurisdiction. In 2014, the federal government reduced the health care escalator from 6% to 3%, and that decision was confirmed again with the present government, even though we know that health care costs are rising by about 5.2% per year.
Is this an opportunity for us? Would you advise the federal government to take a look at that escalator and see if we should be increasing it to keep up with inflation?