Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question of the hon. member and I know that over the years he has worked on rural development files and is very dedicated to the issues of rural Canada.
In terms of funding, as I am sure has come up in this debate already, in the year 2000 the federal government put an additional $21 billion into the health care system. We have transferred increasing dollars to the provinces for health care. It has been an important thing to do and we have worked in that respect. However reform of health care is more than just an issue of dollars, although the hon. member is right, dollars are important. It is also an issue of how we will redesign the health care system, what kinds of structures, delivery platforms and new technologies will be in place.
I do not agree with the hon. member when he suggests that the solution is easy and we should simply just stop talking about it. That is not the case. Just transferring money will not solve the problem. There are some real structural issues in reforming the health care system with which we need to deal. We need to ensure that we understand it. We particularly need to understand it in a rural context. That is why I rose in debate. That is why it is appropriate to have this discussion, and I am pleased to see members participating in this debate.