Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Edmonton Southwest.
Each time I stand to speak on the budget, I try to judge it from the perspective of the last little baby I delivered before I came to the House of Commons. Zachary was a cesarean section and he was my last enjoyable duty in the hospital. When he was delivered, Zachary owed the federal government a debt of $16,400. Lightheartedly I tell my patients that when I was taught to deliver babies, to make them cry I patted them on the bottom or patted them on the feet. I made Zachary cry when I whispered to him that he owed the federal government $16,400. The poor little guy blubbered for a week.
Today Zachary, who is almost four years old, owes the federal government just under $22,000, as does every man, woman and child in Canada. I find that unacceptable. I have listened to cheer leading on this issue from the other side. I would like them to face Zachary. I would like members opposite to sit down with Zachary and explain to him that on his behalf they spent his money. They did not ask his advice, they did not give him any choice in the matter. Every grandma, every grandpa, every parent and every child in Canada today should sit down with this cheer leading crew across the way. I would like to give them that opportunity. I guess they will get the opportunity in the upcoming election and I relish that opportunity.
What does the budget document say on health care? It follows on a promise in the red book that medicare would be protected and a National Forum on Health to make sure health care is going in the right direction. The national forum presented its conclusions not so long ago, and its conclusions were trumpeted far and wide. There is enough money in the system. Use the money more efficiently. Improving the health of our children is a wise investment. Those were the things that were headlined across this land.
However, a little issue was missed. When they said there was enough money they also said there needed to be this cash floor of $12.5 billion. The forum presented information which was fairly liberal. They never did say that the floor, according to the government of the day, was going to be $11.1 billion. There is a discrepancy. It is a little discrepancy. It did not get much play in the press. I do not know why. I can only guess.
In the budget document on sustaining and improving our health care, I found a reinvestment in medicare. There is a reinvestment of $300 million over the next three years to be used for new initiatives. Here is how that $300 million will be spent.
Over three years $150 million will be spent for new projects in home care and drug coverage. Interestingly enough, the health minister seems to glom on to some of these. He wants to direct them to his riding.
There will be $50 million for a health information system; computers to follow and judge whether we are doing the right things in health care.
There will be $100 million in increased funding for community action for children.
That is great. That is $300 million over three years. I saw the headlines: "Good news from the protectors of medicare". I ask a simple question. Do they think all Canadians are stupid? Does anybody not remember the $3.9 billion in reductions to medicare that are coming in the next three years? Only in light of today's government could we have a $300 million reinvestment in medicare offsetting a $3.9 billion reduction.
What are the results of those reductions? We heard them not so long ago in Ottawa where there were major hospital closures. We heard them as well in Toronto where there were major hospital closures. A couple of weeks ago Alberta confirmed that the General Hospital would be closed for good. There are hospital closures in the maritimes. There are hospital closures in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In Quebec there are hospital closures. Il y a la fermeture des hôpitaux là également.
Waiting lines are on the rise for urgent, non-elective care. We are falling behind in technology. We have 1.1 MRI machines in Canada for 100,000 people and in Germany they have 3.4.
Here is what Canada's nurses say about the budget as it relates to health care. This is not partisan, political stuff, this is from Canada's nurses: "In the 1997 budget the federal government has thrown away a valuable opportunity to demonstrate its supposed support for Canada's publicly funded health care system. Federal cash transfers for health will now decline until the next century, despite the fact that the finance minister's target of spending no more than 9 per cent of GDP on health has been reached. The federal government has stated that it unequivocally supports a publicly funded health care system, but is failing to provide the funds to genuinely support this system".
Canada's nurses are not politicians. They are the people who deliver the services. That is what they think of this budget.
It is always easy to criticize. I do not believe in criticizing without presenting solutions that are different. What would Reform do differently during the same three year period when we are going to have $3.9 billion taken away and $300 million given back?
Reform would reduce the deficit to zero by changing both the size and the function of the federal government. It would reduce grants and subsidies to business. It would take selected crown corporations off the public purse completely. It would reduce international aid while Canada is broke. It would rip up the MP pension plan which is grossly unfair. Reform would do all this to pump $4 billion per year back into medicare and secondary education. It would do that to repair the Liberal damage and the damage of those cuts.
The results will have Canadian nurses smiling again.
The national forum on health would have its $12.5 billion cash floor. Most important, the patients who are today waiting in lines with inferior equipment and in pain would be treated sooner. There is actually choice on the scene today when it relates to medicare in Canada. It is an alternative to the old view of the Tories, the Liberals, the NDP, of big government, big programs, big spending and big taxes. It is called the fresh start.
I will give a couple of examples of wasteful spending specific to health care because they lie in the riding of the Minister of Health. Here are some examples that Reform would get rid of: $122,654 for golf carts in the health minister's riding paid for by the taxpayers of Canada thanks to you know who; $33,000 to the Cape Breton Yacht Club. Yachters need that money according to the Minister of Health. What did Nova Scotians ask for instead? They asked for the emergency department at the Windsor hospital to be left open. They asked that the Wolfville hospital not have to charge patients for bandages, syringes and painkillers, which is what is happening today.
To my colleagues across the way when they cheerlead about this budget and the results that they have seen, I ask them to remember Zachary, the little boy who has gone from $16,400 indebtedness to the federal government to just below $22,000 in the course of this Parliament's sitting. They are happy with that performance. I am not. I look forward to meeting with them on the platform to specifically ask them to look into Zachary's eyes. If I were in their place I could not.