That just reflects how little he, his colleagues, the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister understand the real priority and pressing needs of Canadians.
There is one heck of a lot of people who want to understand how the government could have turned its back on this commitment in this year when we have people lined up and trying to get into surgery when they need it. We have people on stretchers in hospital corridors. We have people who desperately need home care and cannot get it. We have people who desperately need prescription drugs and cannot get them. Why? Because the government rips away $7 billion every year.
When some people hear those figures they think that $7 billion is a lot of money but they guess the government had to do it. This is a government that is doing it year after year after year. It is literally killing people.
How could the government say it will do that later, that later it will reinvest some of the surplus dollars, but in the meantime decide to take up the cause of the Reform Party that says we should not worry if we end up with a deteriorating health care system and in fact we should not worry if we have to introduce a two tier health care system because somehow or other people will just get by.
This is a government that has a lot to answer for. One of the questions that it has to be prepared to answer is why it is prepared to turn its back on the priorities of Canadians. Why is it prepared to betray a promise it made during the campaign that 50% of the budget surplus would go to health care?