Mr. Speaker, as one who represents the riding with the second highest proportion of seniors in the country, next only to Victoria, I am well aware of the growing need for health care services for seniors and of the demand that will placed on our system.
Let me first correct something the member said. He may not have heard me, but the fact is that the federal government contributes 33%, not 11% but 33%, of the public funding for health care in this country.
He also should be very well aware that our first priority, our first major investment in last year's budget, after we had gotten rid of the deficit, was to health care. We place a great importance on health care and on our public health care system. In that budget we made a major investment of $11.5 billion, plus we eliminated the cap that had been placed on transfers to Ontario, B.C. and Alberta. In Ontario alone that meant nearly $1 billion extra.
The major investment in this budget again was money for health care. In the last two budgets alone we increased by 25% the amount of money going to the provinces through the Canadian health and social transfer. That is 25% in just two years.
We are now at the highest level ever of federal contributions to the provinces in those areas. We also know that we have to work very closely with the provinces to look at better primary health care, home care, community care for people, not only as they age, but when they are ill and when they are recuperating from illnesses. There is a major job for us to do together to improve our health care system. Money is not the only thing that is needed. We also need new approaches, and community based approaches, which I fully support.