Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member, who himself is a physician, for his question. Unfortunately I do not know about the situation at Wolfville at all. It is the first I have heard of it and I apologize for not knowing about it.
I will relate an experience that I do know. Dr. Herb Dickieson, who is the leader of the Prince Edward Island New Democrats, was elected in 1995 because he stood on the principle that he did not want his O'Leary hospital closed. At that time the government of the day in Prince Edward Island was going to shut it down. He fought along with the citizens of that area to keep that hospital open. I am not aware of what he did in terms of funding in order to keep the hospital open.
I can only say to the people of Wolfville that I would assume, and I do not know this for sure, that they probably would not have had to go to the user fee aspect if all governments had respected and honoured the commitment of dollars to that hospital and had not put those people in that situation in the first place. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I am sure they do not like charging user fees for other things as well.
In retrospect, I would have to say that without knowing the incident, those people did what they felt they had to do and there is not much I can say about it. I wish them well in their endeavours but the fact is, if provincial and federal governments did not download and shirk their responsibilities, the people probably would not have faced that situation in the first place.