Mr. Speaker, the member is right. It is always dangerous to make sweeping statements. There are a great many volunteers in all types of social and medical service delivery charities.
The problem is that hospitals have under their control enormous amounts of money. I think the thing we have to be concerned about is that people who volunteer for these boards must remember that when they volunteer for them they are shouldering a very high responsibility. I would suggest, with great respect to the many people who do volunteer for such organizations, that they should not volunteer unless they are prepared to make the commitment and to put real energy into it.
On the other side of the coin—and I think this is where there is a fundamental problem—too often people get on these boards with only the very best of intentions, but they do not bring to the job the kind of cynical rigour that is sometimes needed by the boards of directors of large corporations which are managing huge amounts of money.
We need to change the Canada Corporations Act. We need to set standards for the boards of directors to ensure that they will understand very clearly what their responsibilities are and realize that if they take on that appointment they do so with the full knowledge that they have a responsibility that is exactly equivalent to, say, running the Steel Company of Canada, or Dofasco, or any other large corporation, and perhaps even more so.
In the case of organizations that deliver our medical services—and we all need and cherish the ability to have free services for all Canadians—this is a heavy responsibility and one which people who serve on these boards of directors can never take lightly.