Mr. Speaker, I outlined very clearly the process by which the federal government would respond if there were a violation of the Canada Health Act. Having the appropriate information and the proper monitoring is critical.
I will point out to my hon. colleague one of the difficulties we have. Earlier she talked about the fact the we as a federal government gave about 11 cents to 13 cents to the provinces. Again I want to correct that. It is about 33 cents to 34 cents in cash and tax points. I heard some provincial members say that they do not recognize tax points. If that is the case we should simply take them back.
In answer to my colleague, one way to add to the accountability of provinces that are responsible for the administration of health care is to add two new principles: accountability and transparency. If the provinces do not feel that the tax points are of much use to them, maybe the federal government should take them back and go back to silos. My hon. colleague from Regina Qu'Appelle mentioned the fact that we had gone to the CHST. I would suggest to him that maybe we should go back to silos and say that this is for health; this is for post-secondary education; and this is for social services. This would put the onus back on the provinces where it belongs.
In terms of accountability, when we transfer money to the provinces we have no idea what they do with it. Coming from the province of Ontario I can point out very clearly that the province is sitting on half a billion dollars. At this point it has the ability to provide for tax cuts, but it does not seem to be able to provide for the administration of hospitals, which is in its jurisdiction. Those are two principles that my hon. colleague might think about in this debate.