Madam Speaker, I thank the member for sharing his concerns. They are concerns I have as well, even if I sit on the government side. Furthermore, this is one of the reasons I ran for office. I will answer the second part of the question and come back to the first part later.
With respect to BSE, the human form of which is known as Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, this is a disease which has been known about for quite some time already. The problem right now is knowing whether so-called mad cow disease is the same as Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. How is this disease transmitted? The answer is still not known.
I am very happy when I see our government investing substantial amounts in research and development to work on this very sort of problem.
As for doctors in the regions, it is true that there is a problem. Sometimes, I have a lot of trouble understanding, when I see that federal transfer payments to my province are not put immediately into health care. We do not know why.
I agree with the earlier speakers who said that the provinces must be truly responsible. The provinces must have the strength of their convictions and tell us what they are doing with the money that the federal government is transferring to them. If they cannot do that, we should look after the health care system for all Canadians.