Mr. Speaker, when I hear the hon. member, it strengthens my convictions as a sovereignist or, as the members opposite like to say, as a separatist, and I will try to pass those on to my five children and to my neighbours, because this is absolutely outrageous.
It is totally unacceptable to confine the provinces to a merely administrative role, while the federal government imposes its whims and dictates in the health sector. The hon. member says the provinces are primarily responsible for the management side of things. This is a partisan interpretation of the 1867 Constitution, and of the one the Liberals created for themselves, in 1981.
Under the constitutional division of powers, the provinces have exclusive jurisdiction over health, and the federal government has no business coming up with standards, concepts, principles and techniques. All these things come under the provinces' responsibility and this is what we are asking the government to recognize.
Under a constitution that has been truncated, manipulated and tampered with by courts that have always been appointed by the federalist parties in office, the federal government now has a taxation power that is perhaps five times greater than what it needs to look after its exclusive constitutional jurisdictions.
It is because the government is collecting too much money from taxpayers that it can brag and boast, set standards and principles, and subject the provinces to its dictates. This is what I find unacceptable.
I am asking the parliamentary secretary if she is sincerely convinced that she is working in the best interests of her country when she makes speeches such as the one she just delivered.