Madam Speaker, I had the pleasure a few weeks ago to attend the Federation of Canadian Municipalities annual convention. Many mayors and councillors gave me the same message which was very clear. Canada's health care system needs more than tinkering with. We need to deal with the structure. Money alone will not solve the problem.
It is very clear that when we talk about pharmacare, primary care and a lot of the structural issues that are delivered by the provinces and territories, we as a federal government are prepared to talk two streams. One is money, but most important, is to make sure that this time next year or even five years from now we are not talking about the same structural issues.
I want to clarify an erroneous impression given by my colleague from the New Democratic Party. This government does not give 13 cents, 12 cents or 15 cents on the dollar. I would point out it is a combination of cash and tax credits. The provinces very conveniently forget about tax points and tax credits because they know they total about 33 cents to 34 cents that the federal government contributes.
If we are going to solve the problem, as my hon. colleague suggested, we have to make sure that those issues are solved for future generations. This is too important an issue to simply talk money which we have already indicated we are prepared to do. But we cannot do one and not do the other. We must solve it for the future. That is what the government intends to do. That is what the government will do. With the support of Canadians and the provinces and territories, we will get the job done.