Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her question. At the beginning of my speech I made the point that this is an effort to divert moneys from HRDC into the bottomless pit of provincial health care as it stands at the moment.
I heard one of the member's colleagues say previously that something needs to be done about the way health care is managed. Do we take money from a set of programs which already has objectives and is serving useful purposes and put it into a bottomless, formless pit by just throwing it to the provinces? My answer to that is no.
I was mentioning the grants in my riding. The Victorian Order of Nurses and Home Care get support from this. Trent Valley Literacy, one of the literacy groups in our community, helps adults and younger people become literate. These are worthwhile, known programs. Why freeze or divert moneys from these programs to something we do not yet know? We heard the discussion about the bill in Alberta. We do not yet know how best to spend the moneys or how best the moneys will be spent in different parts of the country.
I see employment assistance programs, first step workshops for people who have great difficulty getting employment to help them get the first job. These are important programs that are operating now. The diversion of these funds to provinces like Alberta which are moving toward private sector health care is inappropriate.