Mr. Speaker, medicare is important to all Canadians.
Medicare deserves a federal health minister who can adapt to major inevitable changes, like new technology, which will be expensive; like a population that is aging, which will also be expensive; and like government debt, with a federal Department of Health spending $1,200 per person per year on debt service and just $268 per person per year on health.
We need a keen, adaptable minister with fresh ideas. What do we have? We have a minister out of her depth, who is fining the provinces for the delivery of health care that does not match her interpretation of the Canada Health Act.
Medicare deserves better. Canadians deserve better. Federal fines for medicare mean failure.