moved:
That this House recognize that since the inception of our national health care system the federal share of funding for health care in Canada has fallen from 50 per cent to 23 per cent and therefore the House urges the government to consult with the provinces and other stakeholders to determine core services to be completely funded by the federal and provincial governments and non-core services where private insurance and the benefactors of the services might play a supplementary role.
Madam Speaker, I rise to address the Reform motion before the House, but before I do so I would like to say a word about broken promises.
One of the reasons there is so much public cynicism about politics and government is that governments consistently break their promises. This Liberal government, for example, is not yet two years old but already it has littered the political landscape with broken promises.
For example, there was the promise to base key federal appointments solely on competence rather than patronage, a promise routinely broken almost every week.
There was the promise by the now Deputy Prime Minister to resign if the GST was not replaced within one year of the election, shamelessly broken on October 25, 1994.
There was the promise not to alter federal-provincial transfers without the full co-operation of the provinces, which was broken by the introduction of the Canada social transfer in the February budget.
There was the promise to provide a new blueprint-