Mr. Chair, I welcome the opportunity to address my esteemed colleague from Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia on these subjects.
First, regarding the bulk exports, I think we have agreed in this House tonight that there is unanimity. Thank goodness for the leadership of the member for Yellowhead for bringing this issue forward and forcing the government to act. We are still waiting, but hopefully it will act soon.
The member for Yellowhead, I should mention, is also a member of, as are many of members opposite, the Conservative Party's crystal meth task force looking at issues relating to crystal meth that pose a serious health risk to Canadians. I know he has been pushing the government, as I have, to make changes to the laws to help deal with that threat to Canadians.
Regarding the overall health care questions, the member alluded to the fact that the government under the now Prime Minister, who was then finance minister, chopped $25 billion out of the budget in 1995 which was intended for transfer payments to be used in large part for health care. I remember I was watching with interest 10 years ago as that happened and thought, “Can we even comprehend the magnitude of this disaster and what it will mean down the road?” We are seeing it today, in terms of health care wait list times.
The government talks about the need to address wait times for surgeries, diagnostic tests and just to see a general practitioner, but it is unable to do anything. That is really the difference. It talked about a fix for a generation, but it has not actually done anything. We cannot recover overnight from a slash in spending of $25 billion. That takes years to recover from.
Nowhere in this country are the problems in health care more evident than in my home province of Saskatchewan, where we have the longest wait times in the country. While I am critical of the government opposite, our provincial NDP government has made some really poor choices in terms of health care in Saskatchewan. It is about priorities and where we place our priorities in terms of spending. Is it a priority to recruit physicians? Is it a priority to ensure that we have an adequate amount of nurses and pharmacists to serve the population of Saskatchewan? It has not been a priority for the NDP government in Saskatchewan, that is clear.
A friend of mine was an ophthalmologist in Moose Jaw. He loved Moose Jaw, but he left because of the NDP government. He said that it destroyed health care in the province of Saskatchewan, the province that he loved.
There are big issues that need to be addressed regarding the health care file. The government clearly has an awful lot of work to do on this file. It needs to make health care a priority, not just talk about it but back it up with some action, and we could start by banning bulk exports.