Mr. Speaker, I am trying to get to the bottom of why this government decided to spend $3.6 million advertising its federal budget. I raised this question after we received this information.
We were shocked and appalled as were many Canadians across this country, especially Canadians who are facing enormous difficulties gaining access to quality health care services. These are people who are in line for hip surgery, who are waiting for MRIs and for personal care homes, who are struggling to make ends meet in order to care for elderly family members and for needy children.
Today I hope Canadians will get some clarification on this very important question. I hope the parliamentary secretary is not going to simply say that this is what governments always do and it is doing a great service for Canadians. These $3.6 million ads that were taken out do not offer one iota of public service. They are sheer propaganda and speak only to the fact that this must be about political crisis management and not about worthwhile and meaningful remedies for our health care system.
Since the budget was tabled in the House there has been incredible coverage. There have been over 750 references to this budget in the major media outlets. This does not even include many of the weeklies. I am sure the tally comes up to well over 1,000 hits in the media just in terms of the health care budget alone.
Let us not forget that 10 days leading up to the budget the government decided to leak out bits and pieces of the budget so that people were inundated with news about what was in store for Canadians. We heard that there was $2.5 billion for health. Then came the big leak to Canadians about $11.5 billion. Canadians had it up to here about what was going to be in the budget and what was in the budget.
Canadians do not want to see $3.6 million spent on advertising this government's political agenda. They want to see every penny go into health care where it is absolutely needed.
What would that $3.6 million have bought? By our calculations it would have bought 150 personal home care beds. It would have paid many times over for training of emergency nurses. It would have paid for an MRI and then some. All these things are absolutely needed.
I would suggest to the minister, the parliamentary secretary and the government that they listen to the voices of Canadians on this critical issue.
I particularly want to reflect on what has happened in the province of Manitoba where the Conservative government decided to spend $500,000 advertising its so-called health care agenda.
Let me paraphrase the words of the Winnipeg Free Press and apply them to this government. The Minister of Health here in Ottawa should scrap the government's $3.6 million campaign for health care reforms. The move would show that a new firm hand is now steering health care in this country. It would show that the ruling Liberals can get their priorities straight.
That is the message Canadians send to the government. That is the message the Liberals ought to hear. It is far more important to deal with the health care needs of Canadians than to try to manage the political difficulties of this present government.
One really has to ask the last question of all which is if this budget was more about substance and less about smoke and mirrors, would this money actually have been necessary? Would we have to spend taxpayers' money to sell the news to Canadians that this government is finally moving on health care? In fact the government is merely trying to recover lost ground and put back some of the money it has taken out.
I look forward to an answer from the government on this critical issue.