Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the comments of my colleague from Kamloops on the budget implementation act.
We have considerable concerns, and I think all members of the House do, for the future of young Canadians. The task before us is to prepare policies that will create a more prosperous future for young Canadians.
I am greatly concerned about the loss of so many young Canadians to the U.S. We have seen an unprecedented level of brain drain over the last several years. We have lost talented young Canadians to the U.S. Every sign is that that will increase unless we address some fundamental policies, part of which is tax policies.
One hon. member referred to the birthday of her father today. Today is the birthday of my nephew Seth who is three years old. I think of young Canadians like Seth and how they will prosper in the future. We have to work very hard to ensure that the policies we create are sound, not just in terms of what is good for today, but what is good for the future.
This government seems to be very intent on providing labels for its budgets. The label for last year's budget I believe was the education budget. All members in the House recognized student indebtedness as being a huge issue. Student debts grew by 100% from 1993 to last year, from an average of $12,000 to about $25,000 last year. In the year after the education budget which was to address the issue of student debt, over 12,000 Canadian graduates declared bankruptcy.
I am a parliamentarian who is very concerned about the future of health care. If last year's budget was the education budget and the result a year after its implementation was 12,000 graduates declaring bankruptcy, I would appreciate the hon. member's insight on what he predicts to be the effect of this year's health care budget on Canadians and on our beleaguered health care system. The health care system has been absolutely devastated and decimated by the Draconian slash and cut approach of the Liberal government.
What does the hon. member expect to be the effect over the next 12 months when Canadians need a stronger health care system? Can they expect a significant improvement based on this government's reinvestment? He mentioned that in five years the federal government will have only reached the 1995 level of federal government investment in health care. Yet the government spent $3.6 million of Canadian taxpayers' money to tell them this was a great budget for health care. Does the hon. member feel that perhaps that money should have been spent on health care as opposed to telling Canadians about this health care reinvestment which by and large is smoke and mirrors?