Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased that the hon. member asked this question. As she said before, medicare is a defining value of Canadians. Eight-nine per cent of Canadians support medicare. All the ministers of health in every province support medicare, with the exception of Alberta.
Medicare is unique to this country because it is based on clinical need and not on the size of your wallet. It is a Liberal value. Medicare was brought in by a Liberal prime minister. A Liberal minister of health, Monique Bégin, brought in the Canada Health Act which defined the five principles and set a series of limits on how they are used.
One of the important things about medicare is that the government, being a Liberal government, is committed to medicare. We are committed to a predictable funding of medicare in the new Canada health and social transfer. We are committed to working with provinces to ensure that we find innovation and creativity in dealing with some of the pressures that are now facing medicare.
We will work in a consistent, cohesive and coherent manner to find all of the answers within the Canada Health Act.
I want the hon. member to know that this government is the first since the enactment of the Canada Health Act that actually has taken non-refundable deductions from provinces: British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and finally, Alberta.
We have a concern about the growth of two-tier medicine. User fees are not on for this government. The program is based on clinical need. If we are going to continue to make medicare important, we are going to have to look at issues such as evidence based medicine such as moving from prevention, from life style based diseases and-