Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight what I believe is a very important and really overlooked issue, which is health care.
Health care is one of the issues that Canadians hold very close to their hearts. They want to know that the health care services we have grown so dependent on will be there in the future. The federal government plays a very strong role in the national health care program. Part of being able to maintain a strong national role is that the government has to provide the cash dollars necessary to feed the growth within the government expenditures at the provincial level.
My question for the member is related to the health care accord. The current accord will expire in 2014 and we seem to have a Prime Minister who resists meetings with premiers at all costs. At the end of the day, to alleviate the concerns Canadians have with regard to the future of health care, the Prime Minister needs to concede that he has to meet with the premiers at some point in time to come up with a new health care accord.
Could the member provide some of his thoughts in regard to the issue of financing of one of our greatest expenditures and most important social programs?