Mr. Speaker, I submit that it would be very difficult for the health minister to have any credibility whatsoever in attending these meetings.
He has stated that the file is closed. He has repeated day after day the arguments that the floodgates would open and that it would bankrupt the health care system in the country. How could he conceivably attend a meeting of first ministers and have any credibility whatsoever after having stated those positions not only in the House of Commons but across the country?
If there is to be any integrity to the process that is about to take place, first the process should be open so that all Canadians can see what is happening and, second, the current health minister ought not to be a participant at those hearings.