Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance was reminded on many occasions not to forget health care in his new budget. In his budget speech of February 28 the minister indicated that post-secondary education and health were the big priorities of Canadians. He then went on to say that these two areas would receive a one shot infusion of $2.5 billion spread over four years and 10 provinces.
In the case of Newfoundland, that amounts to $10 million a year for four years. If we assign half of that to health care, that is $5 million a year spread over 34 hospitals and health care centres, about the cost of one doctor per institution.
The finance minister did not forget health care but he came very close to forgetting health care. With an underfunded health care system in crisis and a budget in surplus that simply is not good enough.