Mr. Speaker, it is a very crucial because one of the facts of life one discovers on talking to medical deans and deans of nursing schools is that a very large number of our graduates of nursing schools go on to the United States.
If one experiences any of our hospitals one will know a good proportion of the staff is immigrants from other countries. Solutions there will require larger solutions to the brain drain problem. Part of that is bound up with the principle of reducing taxes which is, as I have said, part of the policies my constituents have communicated. We have 50% of the budget surplus going into tax reduction and amortization of the external debt.
We have looked at the issue of subsidizing medical and nursing schools by means of scholarships and the like. We still face the problem that the salary is too low. We have to get more money into the hospitals. Then we are getting into provincial jurisdiction. We may have to move on that.
Some of us have said what a pity the constitution was not written in 1967. We would have given advanced research and perhaps advanced education to the federal government. Then somebody reminded me that in 1864 universities belonged to the federal government. It was a vestige of royal power. It was after a whiskey laden voyage around Cape Breton and the like that federal representatives dropped higher education into the provincial area of responsibility in 1867.
There, though, we are dealing with problems on which the provinces must move, but I think proposals for ways in which the federal government can help will be received. I take that as the thrust of the hon. member's question.