Mr. Speaker, I wish to thank my Reform Party colleague for his excellent speech.
I am wondering about the government members. Why are we not hearing more from them during the question and comment period? What I think is that they do not have it in them to defend their own system. They would rather slip it past us, as my colleague said earlier, cloaked in the more palatable Canada social transfer, and tell us, as the Minister of Finance did, that the new transfer will give the provinces much greater flexibility in running their own health systems.
When it comes time to make cuts, they slash the Canada social transfer by $6 billion annually. Then they tell us they will give some of the money back. They tell us that they can see that the provinces are perhaps having a little difficulty running the health care system. They will be good guys and give some of the money back, instead of cutting $49 billion—for that is what it would have been in 2003. They have changed their minds because that is what the opposition parties, medical bodies and the National Health Forum want.
They told us they were going to put some of the money back but that is simply not true. I would like my Reform Party colleague to tell us what he thinks of the federal government's tactics.