Madam Speaker, I am pleased to ask a question of the Conservative health critic because we are dealing with a very critical issue, that is the future of medicare, and the appropriate level of expenditure by the federal government for support of our universal public health care system.
In that context it would be remiss of me not to note that the erosion of medicare and the slide to privatization actually began under the Conservatives and under the direction of Brian Mulroney where we were on a path of seeing all cash transfers to the provinces for health care dry up by the year 2001. The Liberals came along and put in a cash floor in terms of transfer payments but really levelled the playing field to the lowest possible denominator.
I would expect that the Conservatives have had a re-thinking around this issue of transfer payments and the need for cash to the provinces. I would like to know what the current position of the Conservative Party is with respect to the level of funding from the federal government to the provinces and whether that party would be prepared to commit some of the $15 billion in surplus, if it had a chance, to health care to ensure medicare is sustained and to actually move our system toward the revamped, reformed system we are all talking about.