Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance and further Liberal speakers have been trying to tell the House that this budget is a product of a broad consultation process, that they went around the country and listened to Canadians.
If that is true, they might have done a lot of consultation but they sure did not listen to Canadians because the overwhelming majority of Canadians said over and over and over again at every opportunity that they wanted the health care system fixed.
This should have been and could have been the health care budget that put the wheels back on our health care system, which everybody knows is ailing. We heard instead a paltry $2.5 billion over four years for health care, education and social assistance. In my home province of Manitoba this represents $20 million per year for health care, social assistance and post-secondary education.
How can Liberal members try to say that they have put money back into health care and they have done what is necessary to breathe new life into our ailing health care system with a paltry contribution like that? That is my comment.
Would the hon. member like to comment on the source of the surplus the Liberals are now spending in various ways? Would he not admit that much of the surplus is actually the EI surplus? We have a perverse form of Robin Hood where unemployed workers, who used to be able to enjoy the benefits of EI, are having their pockets picked so the Liberals can flip it back into tax cuts for corporations and capital gains tax cuts for the wealthy. Will the hon. member please try to defend that position?