Mr. Chairman, I thank the hon. member for his question. It is a good point. As I said in my dialogue earlier, the five principles of the Canada Health Act are compromised in every province. It depends on where and how we want to draw the line. Are they compromised because we have misused or abused them? Perhaps they are.
Let us look at the pattern of the government over the last decade. Every time the provinces have been innovative in trying to deal with the deficits inflicted on them by the federal government's withdrawal of money, in came the health minister of the day with a big sword saying “Do not touch that. Do not do that.” It was a double sin. Not only were the provinces asked to deal with an untenable position in terms of lack of funding. They had to do it with their hands tied behind their backs.
I was in the system at the time. I worked on the floor in policy development. I wrestled with the issue of how to make health care sustainable. It is something that absolutely cannot happen again. I hope the new minister takes a more collaborative approach than ever before to the respective roles of the federal and provincial governments. If we are to save health care we need to do that.