It was simply a post-dated cheque. The moneys will not flow for another 18 months. The government has no plan for the future and no guarantee that moneys will be there after the next election.
My leader would want to see established the sixth principle of health care: dependable, stable funding so that provinces would have a road map or plan for the future. The government is devoid of all planning in the health care field. Its record speaks to that. There is no plan and no ideas.
The headline in the next election should simply be no ideas, no votes. The Liberals have demonstrated that for seven years, seven years without leadership. What did they do when they balanced their books? They did it on the backs of the poor, the sick, the elderly and the unemployed. They took the most vulnerable in society and decided to balance the book on their backs.
They still do not have a plan. They certainly do not have a plan that Canadians will buy into. What is more deplorable is that in the last number of weeks they spent $8 million promoting their idea of health care. Not one cent of the billions that are coming in is going to sick people in hospitals who need it.
When this new money is all spent we will be back to 10 year levels—