Mr. Speaker, it is with enthusiasm and pride that I stand today to speak to the budget that was tabled two days ago in the House, enthusiasm and pride because this is a Liberal budget. It is a Liberal budget because it has balanced all of the needs of the people of Canada in trying to find a way to reduce the debt and in trying to find a way to do progressive tax reform and in trying to find a way to look at building a new social and economic infrastructure for the needs of Canadians in the 21st century. That is what makes me proud.
What makes me even more enthusiastic about this budget is that as a physician this budget has focused on health. This budget has focused very clearly on something I know a great deal about.
I do not speak only as a physician. I speak as someone who for the last 20 years has been very involved in all aspects of health care: in the financing of health care; in understanding how the health care system works at the provincial level and at the federal level; in understanding and working closely on issues of health promotion and disease prevention; and clearly, as president of the British Columbia Medical Association, in understanding the issues that affect the providers of health. I have worked for many years with the other health care providers in this country. I think with due modesty that I know something about the health care system in all of its intricacies.
Why I am pleased about this budget is that we have done the very important thing of injecting some acute care into the health care system.
As a physician, and as a patient well knows, physicians are supposed to make accurate or as accurate as possible diagnoses. In spite of what we may hear from members of the opposition party, the health care system in Canada has not been in crisis and never has been in crisis. What the health care system of Canada has been—