Mr. Speaker, it was with interest that I listened to members from the New Democratic Party as they alluded to my home province of Saskatchewan. The success of those in Saskatchewan in achieving some of their goals in recent years is because they adopted a policy that was not unlike the NDP policy with the premier there, but they followed a more conservative policy.
Last weekend when I returned home—this hits both the opposition and the NDP—an 80-year old lady who is very close to me fell and broke her hip and her shoulder. She had just finished waiting six days, not six hours, in agony to get a post-operative bed. I would like to inform the members to my left that these are some of the horror stories in Saskatchewan at the present time. I know there is restructuring and I know they are trying to make amends, but do not ever let it be known that all is well in the province that initiated medicare because it certainly is not.
Every day horror stories cross my desk from my constituency and beyond. Which province probably has the longest waiting list for hip surgeries? Saskatchewan. Which province has cut more beds per capita than any other province? Saskatchewan. Which province at the present time has the longest waiting list for access to an MRI machine? Saskatchewan.
Let it be made known that in order to get to the point they are at today with the cuts from this government, all is not well in the socialist medicare system of Saskatchewan. As the result of the delays for MRI machines, people are now going to North Dakota where they can get an MRI diagnosis within two days once they apply.
The following statistics just came in. The trans-Canada highway in Saskatchewan is a national disgrace and some of the blame has to be borne there. There is no question about that with the robbery of the excise tax and Saskatchewan getting about 4%. Hon. members know that when they put 50 litres of gas in their gas tanks, $5 goes to the federal government through its excise tax, and about 40¢, that is all, is returned to Saskatchewan.
While the provincial government has been a little better, the eastern and western sections of the trans-Canada highway that runs through Saskatchewan are presently untwinned. Already this year that highway has claimed seven lives unnecessarily. That same small stretch of untwinned highway has claimed 38 serious accidents. Do not tell us about all of the glories, about what is happening across Canada. In Saskatchewan alone these are the facts and no one can get around it.
I listened with interest to this speech because we do not hear much in the House about my province. I will leave that with hon. members. While I congratulate them for some of things that are being done, let us not deceive the people that all is well in socialist Saskatchewan.