Mr. Speaker, I found the speech by the hon. member to have some very creative accounting. It was quite interesting.
If government spending created jobs, if it created all these wonderful jobs, the government has overspent $600 billion at the federal level in the past 25 to 30 years. If we add the overspending of the provinces to that, in total it overspent maybe $1 trillion. If throwing government money at problems could fix them, how come this $1 trillion that has been spent has not bought three jobs for everyone of us throughout the country? That is the first question.
The hon. member talks about the medical care system and how he would like to see jobs created in medical care. I would like to ask him whether he realizes that about $2 billion crosses the border into the United States every year with wealthy Canadians who buy medical services in the United States. Would it not be a good idea since he supports jobs in the medical care system to try to bring that money back into Canada in some way, to provide an alternative choice for those people who are already spending $2 billion across the border? Let them spend it here and certainly put rules in place so that doctors cannot run into that special new program. Let people spend it here so that new jobs will be created in the medical care system.
If the member would look at examples in other countries which have done this, such as Britain, Sweden and New Zealand, he would see that the medical services jobs almost doubled as a result of introducing such plans.