Mr. Speaker, I have a couple of brief comments I would like to add on to the issues the hon. member for Calgary Southeast just touched on.
I want to touch on a few points that were brought forward by the member for Calgary Southeast because I think they are very prudent points.
A lot of the discussion that has been going on today and over the course of the weekend at the Liberal national convention surrounded the issue of health care. Under the current mechanism where the government has raised the ceiling for health care from $11 billion to $12.5 billion one would think that was actually trying to inject more money back into one of our true priority areas, that being health care.
But in my province of New Brunswick over the next few years the transfer payments with respect to the CHST will actually plummet from $322 million down to $311 million. Health care is going to be cut in the province of New Brunswick.
I challenge the government. If it seriously wants to make health care a priority under the mechanism for the funding of health care, not only should three provinces have increased funding under the CHST—those being British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario—but the other provinces should have increased funding as well. I am speaking on behalf of my home province of New Brunswick.
I am making this point in a very constructive fashion. When the government revisits the issue in terms of what its true priority areas are it should revisit the amount of money being allocated toward some of the smaller provinces, including New Brunswick, to ensure that we have more money for health care and not less.