Mr. Speaker, I am sure the member missed the initial comments I made. Those comments were fairly specific.
There will have been $11.5 billion put back into health over the coming five years, with $21.4 billion taken out in the previous five years. Does the member see that balance? My colleague will shake her head and say this did not happen. I ask her to look at the amount transferred to the provinces in 1993 and look at the amount transferred at the end of the next five years. The member will find that this is an incredible reduction.
My time is relatively short here but we could go beyond my comments on the issue of mismanagement in the system and we certainly should go beyond my comments. I am not trying to talk about the whole health care system. I am talking about the federal responsibility when it relates to the funding component. If that is beyond the ken of the Liberals, I can understand why they would go ahead and make those reductions and think they are not a big deal.
Does the Ontario Hospital Association have the capability of finding some mismanagement in the system? You bet and it certainly should do that.
It is also interesting to note that the province of Ontario spends more on medicare in one year than the federal government transfers to the whole country. Where is the rubber hitting the road? The rubber is hitting the road for the provinces and this administration made it difficult for them. In spite of those reductions the provinces found more money for health care.
It is a dreadful debate when we look at just a narrow component. This government has done more to harm medicare than any other government in Canadian history.