Mr. Speaker, I am very surprised by the hon. member's comments. With all due respect to him, there seems to be a lot of confusion in his remarks.
This is unbelievable. The hon. member does not realize that if he wants to talk about how the provinces should set up the health system, he is simply in the wrong legislature. He is surprised that there is a growing consensus in the House that the role of the federal government, based on its resources, is to restore transfer payments to the 1993-94 level.
What we have here is a centralizing vision that is backward and outdated. I do not understand how a political party can be so insensitive to what the provinces want. This is unbelievable.
Their party, which supported Pierre Elliott Trudeau for years, is even more centralizing than the late Prime Minister. Thank goodness there are in the House parties such as the Bloc Quebecois which care about the regions. Imagine for a moment what it would be like if this parliament was left to the Liberals and the NDP; we would find ourselves in a most unacceptable centralizing process.
Again, I am telling the hon. member in all friendship that if he wants to decide for the provinces how health care should be organized, he is in the wrong legislature.
I believe that such centralization is totally out of date. No one, except the NDP, believes in it. Could the hon. member name a single premier who asked that the Romanow commission rule on how health care should be set up? I am extremely disappointed.
Incidentally, I attended the NDP convention. They even adopted a motion to create a department of urban affairs. Denis Marion had asked me to attend and I spent the whole weekend there. I followed the work being done. I am telling NDP members that such centralization is unacceptable; they are offbeat and are living in a world which no one wants, and certainly not Quebecers.