Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for his excellent presentation.
I understand when the member talks about having a strategy for health care, in all areas of health care. I want to take him back a bit and invite him to consider and comment on this.
His comment on the one-offs, on the federal-provincial deals and whether it constitutes a plan is debatable. If we look back to last year, 13 jurisdictions were brought together. Ten provinces, three territories and first nations negotiated what was needed in health care across the country over the term.
We are looking at a 10 year plan with $41 billion. In working our plan and planning our work, I ask the hon. member to consider this. We have established benchmarks on wait lists and have set aside $5.5 billion for that. Provinces will report annually on the plan. We have timetables on different elements of the plan, for example, a national pharmaceutical strategy.
On the accountability side, while provinces will be reporting, we also have the Canadian Institute for Health indicators and the health council of Canada will bring all this together in a national perspective.
We also have two parliamentary reviews planned within the 10 year strategy, within the 10 year commitment by the federal government and the 13 jurisdictions. By doing that, we agree that perhaps the evolution will not be perfect. At these milestones, we will have to see if we need to reorient, and that is where Parliament comes in.
We look at the question of health human resources, which are a big part of the plan. The member is absolutely correct. In a lot of ridings, including mine, there is a lack of medical practitioners and professionals, whether they be technicians, nurses, pharmacists or otherwise. There is a need, but within the plan there is money and a plan to work with the provinces and the provincial jurisdictions to return more seats in medical schools. He may remember, as I do, when these seats were turned back in nursing school.
They are in the strategy, in an organized fashion.