Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments made by the hon. member from Newfoundland. I know that he is concerned about his constituents and his great province. I would like to address both his observations.
First, he started by suggesting that we as a government are not moving. I would suggest that we are moving, and I think we are moving rather expeditiously. Let me just put it this way. I think that a lot of the opposition members around here forget that we did provide, just less than 24 months ago, something more than $21 billion toward the health care system. I would consider that action.
We have the Romanow commission. The government has decided that it will not do this without a good strong study, without getting input from all Canadians. That is what Mr. Romanow has done and we will get that report in the month of November. As the health minister has already indicated, there will be a health ministers conference in January. Are we moving fast enough? Maybe not for the hon. member, maybe not for some other opposition critics, but I think we are moving as quickly as we can.
He wondered about equal treatment for smaller provinces, and Newfoundland and Labrador is certainly one, as least when it comes to population. Let me just point out one thing, because I have a set of figures in front of me. When it comes to the federal share of provincial health spending by province, the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador ranks number two. The federal government shares 62% of all the health care spending in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Only Prince Edward Island exceeds that, at 68%. My own province, the Province of Manitoba, is down at 46%.
Of course the other thing when it comes to a Province like Newfoundland and Labrador, and the hon. member perhaps just forgot, is that we do have something called equalization payments. That is what equalization payments are all about: to address the financial abilities from one province to another. That is why Ontario does not get it. That is why Alberta does not get it . That is why, up until I guess recently, British Columbia did not get it. So we do have something to address the issue that the hon. member has just spoken about.