Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to listen to my colleague deliberate on such an important issue as health care and be so misleading or misinformed, or maybe he is on drugs, I am not sure. I would like to clear up some misconceptions on why the provinces are so upset at the federal Liberal government.
The provinces are upset because the government unilaterally pulled $25 million out of health care in the middle of the 1990s and left health care to just float along on its own. The provinces were left to deal with the massive reductions in cash, leaving them with a situation where over a million people cannot get the services they need today.
Why are the provinces so upset? They are upset because the government did not put any money back into the system until just before the 2000 election when it announced $23 billion. Not a nickel of that money hit the system until April 1 of the next year and then for a five year period. What did the government do when it announced the health accord? It re-announced all of that funding again.
That fools the general public, the people who walk the streets, into thinking that $34.8 billion will go into health care, but it does not fool the provinces because they know the dollars and they know the actual costs. That is why we are seeing the unprecedented act happening right now where the provinces collectively are putting out advertisements across the country to convince the general public of the failure of the Liberal government.
Why will the government not come clean with Canadians on their money and why the cover-up? Is the culture of corruption that we see in the government even in health care? It is absolutely appalling and I am just frustrated with what I hear coming from the other side.