Madam Speaker, I listened with some interest to the member for Madawaska—Restigouche speak on the merits of the government and what it has done as a health care provider.
Since he is a member of the government I certainly understand that he would want to sing the merits of the government, but I just do not understand how he is able to do that.
Certainly I do not expect that the health care provided in his riding is much better than the health care provided in my riding of South Shore. In the village of New Ross where I live, we are 40 or so kilometres from the nearest doctor. People who cut themselves or get their hand caught in a piece of equipment have to hold it together as best they can until they can get to a doctor. There is certainly none in the community. There was when I grew up there. There was always a doctor there, but there are no doctors in rural Canada.
Members should not stand there and sing the praises of the government and what it has done to help rural Canadians and provide health care because it is just not there.
There is a question that I actually do want to raise now that members have finished singing the praises of the government. Now that they have finished, they can answer a question on a specific item. The item is one that was brought up earlier. It is a serious potential health hazard and I would go so far as to say that it is a serious health hazard now. It is bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE.
This is the hidden health care risk that Canadians face and that the government in particular does not want to recognize. It does not want to recognize the big issues and the real problems that it could face. This is the hidden health care risk. It is out there behind the scenes and we do not know just how quickly it is going to rear its ugly head.
We have chronic wasting disease in deer and elk. We have BSE potentially being spread from blood product, from beef and sheep and animal products that have not been prepared properly. We expect that it will be just as big an issue in Canada as it was in Britain unless the government is willing to be proactive and do something about it in a very proactive way, take a risk, spend some money, find out what the problem is and do something about it to protect our health care and protect our agriculture industry in Canada.
What will the government do about it? The government has done nothing so far.