Mr. Speaker, I will answer the last question first.
The member is not prepared to hear the irony I pointed to and also misses the point. It is absolutely clear that Canadians want accountability but they want all governments to be held accountable starting with the federal Liberal government. That is why we have proposed a mechanism by which we could try to have such accountability, to have a watchdog function to ensure the federal government and the provincial governments are living up to their responsibilities to preserve a quality health care system and build for the future.
It is interesting for the member to suggest I am only being negative when he is missing the point. We are here today trying to encourage members across the way to look beyond today, to look beyond the question of dealing with the reinvestment issues and to address what is actually happening to our health care system in terms of privatized health care.
The member only has to talk to folks in Alberta who are deeply worried about the possibility of a private hospital, on which the government has maintained absolute silence. I suggest he talk to people who are waiting in line for cataract surgery in a province like Alberta and are told if they want to wait many months they can get it in the public system. If they want to pay $4,800 now they can get it at a private clinic. That is exactly the kind of deterioration and damage that has happened to our public system that we have to be vigilant about. I would impress on the member to look to the future and to try to work to ensure that we maintain those fundamental principles of a publicly administered, universally accessible system.