Mr. Speaker, we certainly seem to have gotten the attention of the hon. member. He has awoken from the lethargy that the Alliance members imposed on him when they were speaking.
In any event, I do not see the problem that the hon. member sees with the federal government putting conditions on the spending of its own money. If I was going to give him money to be spent on health care would he want me to just say “here's the money, do with it what you would like. Set up private clinics, give it to corporations and do whatever you like”. If it is my money, and in this case it is the federal government's money, the federal government has every right to put conditions on the spending.
That makes it constitutional. That is not an invasion of provincial jurisdiction. That is why the Canada Health Act was devised the way it was. That is why it took years to bring it in. The minions down in the Department of Justice took a couple of years to figure out how they could do this after the Hall commission report. Action on extra billing and user fees was recommended in 1981 or 1982 and it took until 1984 to get the Canada Health Act because the federal government was worried about intruding on provincial jurisdiction. In the end what did the act say it could do? It could put conditions on the spending of its own money and that is what it did with the Canada Health Act.
The government said that it was its money and it would give it to the provinces under following conditions. That is appropriate. I can understand why the Bloc is against it, but to suggest that it is somehow not within the power of the federal government or that it somehow intrudes on provincial jurisdiction is wrong. It may have an effect on provincial policy; that is the choices of provincial governments when it comes to the provision of health care services.
However, if the member wants to stand in his place and make a defence of extra billing and user fees and why the federal government should allow them to proliferate across the country or anything else that amounts to a form of patient participation, I would be glad to hear his defence of that particular policy.