Mr. Chair, it is a great opportunity having the minister here to answer some questions with regard to the estimates. We tried to have her appear before committee over the last number of weeks but we were blocked. However since she will not go to the committee it is great to see committee go to her. She is here now with her delegation of officials and we certainly expect to hear some answers this evening.
I will start by talking a bit about the health accord and what has happened with it. I think Canadians have applauded the accord in the sense that we are finally giving some money back to health care. Health care has received a little breath of fresh air in the sense that the federal government has stepped up to the plate with some of the dollars it pulled away from health care in the mid-1990s.
We agree with a number of things contained in the accord. New cash infusion is great. We said that provincial flexibility to implement those new programs had to be there, and the accord agreed with that. We also said that restoring some of the funding to core health services needed to be there and that there had to be no restriction on alternative delivery within that public system. All of that was achieved with the accord.
We told the government that it had to stop the funny money and that it had to stop trying to discern how much money was going from the federal government to health care. We said that the CHST had to be separated so we would know exactly how many dollars were or were not going in, because that seemed to be a real sore spot. Every time we asked the federal government how much money it was putting in we always received mixed numbers. Hopefully some transparency will now be added to that. Canadians put in $112.5 billion last year, which is a horrendous amount of money, and they need to know and deserve to know where that money is being spent.
We have identified some shortcomings in the health accord. They are actually shortcomings from the Romanow commission's report as well as from some of the other commissions that dealt with this issue. Very little action was taken with regard to waiting lists and the shortage of health care workers.
We in the Canadian Alliance have been saying for a long time that Canadians need some guarantees. If Canadians have no trouble putting $112 billion into health care then they need some guarantee of services. They also need a guarantee that they will not die while on a waiting list.
The former finance minister, the member for LaSalle-Émard, made some interesting comments on CTV's Question Period with regard to the problems with the health accord. I get very nervous when I hear an individual, who could potentially become the next prime minister of this country, saying that the accord might be scrapped. This is the same minister who pulled the money away from health care in the mid-1990s. It makes me quite nervous to hear that the accord is not adequate.
I wonder if the health minister agrees that the accord does not address these problems. Has she been talking to the former finance minister about this? Was there any dialogue between them? Is this a recommendation coming from her or is this a recommendation just from him? I would like to start with those questions.