Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to address the House about the impact of the Harris government's decisions on health care and hospital closures in Ontario.
I feel obliged to dispel certain falsehoods about the issue, namely about the reduction in transfer payments to the Ontario government from 1993-94 to 1998-99, which amount to only11.4 per cent. This represents at most 2.5 per cent of Ontario's revenues.
In the light of these statistics, the Harris government cannot say logically that the cuts in transfer payments are behind the cuts to health care and the closures of hospitals like the Montfort. The real reasons for these cuts and hospital closures is no doubt the decision of the Harris government to cut taxes, including personal income tax.