Madam Speaker, I listened to the hon. member's speech with great interest, particularly with regard to the transfer payments.
My understanding is that the federal government is putting $3.3 billion less into the system than was in the system in 1993-94. This is the year 2000. When we factor in inflation we are looking at a great lack of funding from the federal government to the provinces, particularly when the provinces signed on to these programs with the complete understanding that it would be a 50:50 cost sharing.
The hon. member also spoke of pain and suffering, and I have a question for him. To my way of thinking, one of the darkest pages in the history of the medical profession in Canada was how this so-called caring and sharing Liberal government treated hepatitis C victims. These people absolutely believed in the system. They were told that it was fail-safe. They bought into it and went in for blood transfusions. After the fact they found out that they had tainted blood. Some are suffering with kidney failure and some are literally dying. Yet the government has only seen fit to pay the lawyers in these cases. It has not put one dime toward the victims.
Is this the hon. member's idea of what people would think of as a Liberal “we care, we will help you” attitude toward innocent victims in the medical system?