Mr. Speaker, the member may be aware of the National Forum on Health in which eminent Canadians in the health and other professional fields reviewed Canada's health care system.
The report delivered to parliament indicated that the $11.5 billion level of funding was an adequate and appropriate amount for health care funding and that the issue was not so much the amount of dollars but rather how we were spending our health care dollars. I would point that out to the member.
The member should also know or may be aware that in the province of Ontario the amount of reduction in transfers under the Canada health and social transfer was in the range of about $1.2 billion. Also the government concurrently cut personal income taxes to the tune of about $4.3 billion, a little more than three times the amount of reduction in health care funding.
Does the member believe that it is appropriate for the provinces to declare that the federal government has somehow impinged upon its ability to deliver on the health care system and at the same time reduce taxes or spend in other areas substantially more than the amounts we are talking about in terms of the reduction of transfers to the provinces?