Madam Chair, I am pleased to have a chance to participate in this historic debate, an in-depth look at the estimates for the Department of Health.
Five hours is a big improvement over the hour we might have had in the past in committee. I commend the minister for being here. I should let her know, though, that five hours falls far short of the 50 hours or so that we used to grill the minister of health in Manitoba. She may live to regret the day that we have opened up this door.
Let me start by asking about the Romanow report. The first question I obviously have is, why have the minister and the government failed to implement the Romanow report as a blueprint for the future of health care?
I know that is a broad general question but Canadians everywhere are asking us that question. Why would the government spend millions of dollars on an independent commission, spend a great deal of time with Canadians investigating their feelings about health care, ensure that a blueprint evolved from that process, and then end up not doing anything about it?
Canadians are asking us, why did this happen? How did we have this huge process, the expenditure of time, an in-depth look at values, and then a blueprint basically ignored by the government of the day?
Is there an intention on the part of the government to recognize the Romanow Commission report as a blueprint and to begin to implement it at least on a piece by piece basis? If it is not prepared at this point to give whole hearted support for the report, will the government give us an indication of how it views the Romanow blueprint and what it intends to do with it?