Mr. Speaker, I am glad the hon. member asked that question. That is an issue on which I have spoken a number of times, as has our leader Joe Clark.
I want to set the record straight. This is why I talked about Roy Romanow, the NDP premier of Saskatchewan and the radical measures he will have to take as an NDP premier to deal with the shortfall in funding in health care. Let us start with Mr. Klein who said that this is something he would prefer not to have to do. He is on the record as having said that. He did not want to do it, in other words, bring in bill 11. If we talk with Roy Romanow, Saskatchewan is reconstructing the list of essential services. In other words, some of the services deemed to be essential will be taken off as a cost saving measure in the province of Saskatchewan.
The two premiers are next door to each other. One is a Conservative premier and one is a socialist premier, and I am not saying that in a derogatory way, but our position on the issue has been much the same as Mr. Klein's. This is something we would not want any government to have to do nor would we want Premier Romanow to have to strike off essential services, those that are deemed essential today, eliminate the list and make the list shorter. Unfortunately he is being forced to do it. That is exactly what Ralph Klein was forced to do. Our position and Mr. Clark's is simply that we support his right to introduce that bill in the legislature. We understand why he did it. It is a question of survival.
It comes down to what province will be next. We already know which one it is. It is Roy Romanow in the province of Saskatchewan. It will be a raging debate in his province, as it will be in my province and every other province until we come up with a plan that is sustainable and which will work. That is why our leader, Mr. Clark, has suggested in addition to the five principles which I mentioned in the House, there has to be one more principle and that is sustainable, predictable funding.
That is not to say funding in itself will do it because it will not. Throwing huge gobs of money at the problem will not solve it. That is one of the points John Crosbie, the former fisheries minister who is from Newfoundland made this week at our policy conference. We agree with that. We have to have honest debate and dialogue on where we are going.
For the NDP to point at us or any other party in terms of where we are going and what we want to do, that is not what Canadians want to see. We want to see honest dialogue with honest solutions.
The federal government has not engaged in honest dialogue. On bill 11 it has not. It has sent out mixed signals to the premier of Alberta and every other premier in the country because it wants the best of two worlds. It wants to be able to balance its books on the backs of every province. The finance minister wants to be able to stand in this place on his hind legs and brag about how he balanced the books. He repeats that day in and day out in the House. He has been successful, but let us examine why he has been so successful.
He has done it at the expense of every single living Canadian. The government has taken it out of health care. That is not a lot to be proud of. The truth will be in the next election. That is why I am very supportive of our leader Mr. Clark. There is no national leader who is more respected than Mr. Clark when it comes to dealing with the provinces and premiers from one end of the country to the other.
We need honest dialogue in an attempt to come up with solutions. We do not have all the solutions. We want to engage Canadians in the debate so that at the end of the day they will say, “ We can see where this is going. We do not want Americanization of our health care system. We know it will cost us some money but this is where it is going. This is a plan we can live with. It is an honest plan, a sustainable plan and one that will do the trick”. That is what Canadians want. Pointing fingers back and forth is not going to work. The Liberals have done that for the last seven years.
In fact, when I concluded my speech, I mentioned that the Liberals poisoned the atmosphere. When we talk about bringing the premiers and health care ministers together, they holler across that they will not do it. They will not do it because they have poisoned the atmosphere. Only by having an honest dialogue and having a broker come in to solve it will the problem get solved.
The present government cannot do it. It has been scrambling for the last seven years. We can measure its approach to every single problem that has besieged Canadians in the last number of years. Those problems exist today because of the lack of leadership. In other words, it has not honestly addressed them. The Liberals have been coasting for a number of years.
If any other members would like to ask a question, I would be more than happy to answer them. Maybe some Liberal members have a question or two for me.