Exactly, and we know how they did it. It was on the backs of ordinary Canadians and on the backs of the health care system in our respective provinces. Then they have the audacity to stand in the House and say that they balanced the books. It is fine that they balanced the books, but at what expense? It was at the expense of putting our health care system in a crisis situation from which we may not be able to recover if these people stay in office.
Obvioulsy there is a solution to the problem: replace them when the next election comes around. That is what we are hoping we can do because we need federal leadership in this regrd. That is exactly what Tom Kent was talking about last evening and continually spoke about over the last five or six years after witnessing the horrible things his party did to the health care system. I am saying good for Tom Kent. He should keep speaking up because those are the types of people we want to hear from on this issue.
The interesting point about the cutbacks in the 1993 to 1997 era and the damage they did to the health care system is that the provinces had nothing to say about it. The government just simply went ahead and did it. The provinces suddenly woke up to find that the money was not there and asked how it could be done.
In fact, every member of the Liberal caucus nodded in silent agreement as the government did it. They stood on their hind legs in this place and supported those draconian cutbacks to our health care system. That is deplorable. As Liberals, I do not know how they could have sat there and allowed it to happen.
The hon. member for St. John's West certainly knows the Premier of Newfoundland who campaigned hard via another candidate to try to keep that member out of the House of Commons but did not succeed. The Premier of Newfoundland, for goodness' sake, stood in this place in 1995 and voted for cutbacks to the health care system. Now he is regretting it. One of the strongest critics of the federal government in terms of what it has done to health care is the Premier of Newfoundland. He goes by the name of Brian Tobin, just for the record.
The Liberals bragged last year when the budget came down about putting $11.5 billion in the health care budget. In writing about last year's budget in the February 3 edition of The Globe and Mail Jeffrey Simpson stated:
Anyone who believed the $11.5 billion pledged in the last budget would suffice did not understand the economics of health. That increase amounted to a 4% yearly increase in public sector health care spending. Four per cent is about the medical inflation rate, so the additional spending would only prevent the system from deteriorating further.
We have gone a year with $11.5 billion which would basically keep up with inflation, if it did that; in some jurisdictions it did not even do that. This year the government put in $2.5 billion to keep the system going for four years. It was $2.5 billion over four years or take it all up front. For example, if the province of New Brunswick took it up front, it would keep its system going three days. It is the same in Newfoundland.
That is not leadership. That is attempting to salvage political careers. That is exactly what the Prime Minister is famous for doing. The Liberals did the same thing in 1997 on the eve of the federal election. When the Liberals were in trouble right up to their eyebrows, they came up with a deathbed reprieve. They suddenly threw a bunch of money into health care to make up a fraction of what they had taken out of it, only a fraction.
That is exactly what is wrong with the system. It is ad hoc, make it up as they go along, fly by the seat of their pants. Our leader Joe Clark is suggesting that we have a sixth principle in addition to the ones I mentioned. That principle would be predictable sustainable funding.
No business can run that way. A business cannot be run by saying, “We do not have a plan. We are just going to run and hope that it works”. Usually when someone runs a business like that, at the end of a year or two it is bankrupt.
That is what the Liberals have done with health care. They have bankrupted it because of no direction, no ideas and no plan. They have done it now for seven solid years. In the meantime, they have poisoned the atmosphere with the provinces. The Prime Minister cannot get into the same room with the first ministers or the health ministers to solve the problem. Why? They do not trust him. Would anyone trust him? It is like someone who sneaks into a house in the middle of the night and steals the furniture. That is what he has done with health care.
I want to say a couple of things about the health minister. On a personal basis I like him. He is a good man. There is no question about that. He is very articulate, well coifed, well dressed, maybe not rock solid on this file but he is a good person nonetheless. I am not attacking him on a personal basis.
What he reminds me of is the little man on the wedding cake. He is properly dressed, well attired, like the perfect little gentleman on the wedding cake. That is exactly how the Prime Minister treats him. But the icing is melting. The Prime Minister does not give his minister one ounce of support. How he could stand up in this House day in and day out and prop up a Prime Minister that pulls the legs out from under him on a routine basis, I cannot fathom. I cannot understand that.
If I were the Minister of Health, I would resign. I would not allow the system to deteriorate or allow someone to take a wrecking ball to the system under my watch. If the Prime Minister wanted to do it, he could go ahead but it would not be on my shoulders. If I were the health minister, that is exactly what I would say to the Prime Minister. I would walk up to him with my resignation in my hand and tell him to show some leadership on this issue and do something about it.
Of all the issues in this country, this is the number one issue on the minds of Canadians. As the minister mentioned this morning, and I agree with him, we do not want to go down the road of Americanization of the Canadian health care system.
There is an article which states that the American people are one sickness away from bankruptcy. I live right next to the American border. I have worked in the United States. I have lived there and some of my family members have been bankrupted by the American system. That is one point on which we agree.
What he has to do is show some leadership to avoid us moving in that direction because on his watch we are going to do it. The health care system is in a crisis. We support the motion. We want the government to fix the health care system.