Madam Speaker, I am happy to address the question, but I would like to make a couple of quick comments on some of the things the hon. member spoke about, especially when it comes to the numbers and being able to be above numbers so at least they are there on a positive level when it comes to surplus. Liberals have continuously lowered expectations for Canadians, saying that the surplus will be much lower than it is. By doing so, they are playing around with the numbers to their advantage.
That was my big point about how we need greater accountability. That money belongs to Canadians, and unless the government is going to make the investments to show that it is using the surplus in an open and honest way for Canadians, the government should be returning it. There have been ideas about it, such as some of that surplus being legislated into paying down the debt or into tax relief. That is something that I would like to see coming from the government. There has been no movement on that front.
The member also mentioned infrastructure and the $12 billion over the course of the Liberals being in office. Let us compare this to the amount collected on fuel taxes, especially if it were a dedicated tax where the money collected from fuel taxes was supposed to go back into our highways and roads and into infrastructure across the country. The numbers do not add up for the amount of revenue from fuel taxes and the amount that has actually been spent on infrastructure. That is why I had to criticize the Liberals, because they are still really far off the mark when it comes to acceptable levels.
On the question of private health care, all Canadians have had to accept the idea of private health care because under the watch of this government we have seen a proliferation of health care services going private across the country, whether we like it or not and whether Canadians support it or not. This is because of the fact that the government has not shown leadership, first, when it comes to investments in transfers into the provinces and when it comes to stable funding for health care and education, but also because there has been no leadership in coordinating stable policy with the provinces. If anything, the government has had a very antagonistic approach when it comes to the provinces.
I know that in my province of Alberta, where the premier and the government have tried to look at innovative ways to provide health care for citizens, the government has penalized them in the past and has held back transfers, and that was when it had the gall to cut the transfers to begin with. It is outrageous that the government would accuse anyone else of privatizing our health care system when, I would argue, it is the Liberals who have put us in the situation we are in, where a private system is inevitable unless we change this government.
Again, I want to reiterate that we have had mixed messages from the health minister. On one day he says he is in favour of working with the provinces to allow for privatized services. On the next day, because of the backlash from many of his caucus colleagues, he says they are only in favour of a public system. I would say that for once we are finally seeing before the election what we have seen in the past. They have a hidden agenda on health care, they are not going to be up front with Canadians until after the election, and then it will be too late.