Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the non-partisan intervention from my colleagues opposite.
The hon. member asked if I read the budget. I did read the budget. But had he been sitting in the House when I gave my speech he probably would have heard a little more clearly what I was saying. I did not say 13%. I said 13 cents. Just to reiterate, the government feels it is appropriate for the federal government to only pay 13 cents of every dollar spent on health care. Clearly that is not consistent with what the Canada Health Act has set forth when it was 50%. I expect the hon. member has been clarified on that one.
When we talk about global competitiveness issues I am not surprised the hon. member is confused. As a party that fought free trade and thought it was a bad thing, clearly his is not a party that can actually put together the types of policies that Canadians need to compete in a global environment.
Corporate tax reduction is very important. After this budget is fully implemented, Canada's corporate tax rates will go from being second highest in the OECD to being fourth highest in the OECD. That is assuming that over the next five years no other OECD countries reduce their taxes. In fact 28 of the 31 OECD countries plan to reduce corporate taxes. We will be just catching up in five years to where we should have been much earlier.