Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the hon. member, with regard to home care and pharmacare, that I support her view that there should be a role for the federal government. I have been promoting that idea for a number of years.
As she said, it is a collaborative effort. It is an effort where the provinces, federal government and municipalities need to take an important role. With that collaborative effort comes certain responsibilities. It is not for me to say who would best do what. That would be done through negotiation and dialogue with the different levels of government so that each level of government can use its expertise. I support her idea that we must do more in that area.
In terms of restoring federal spending, that seems to be a debate put forward by the premiers in ads on TV saying they are only spending so much. There are different views on what is real spending from different levels of government.
The Prime Minister has said that our levels of spending are back up to what they were. It was in the neighbourhood of 40% to 44%. When the provinces decided that they wanted the system changed to tax points because it would benefit them, the federal government agreed. When the provinces received all the money, they have now come back and said they are not getting as much money.
We changed the system to benefit the provinces. It is not a question of who spends what. Canadians want to ensure they have affordable and accessible health care. All Canadians, no matter where they are from, no matter what their spending power, no matter what their income, should have accessible health care available to them. I am sure through efforts such as healthy living we will be able to do that.