Mr. Speaker, I would like to indicate that I will be sharing my time with the member for Charlottetown.
I must say, it is a bit of a challenge to address such a large bill in only 10 minutes, but I will give it my best shot.
Within the Liberal Party, we have talked a great deal about the middle class over the last period of time. We believe that the government is not doing what needs to be done to assist the middle class of Canada. I would suggest that some of the questions we have raised, and the general of lack of a response from the government, speaks volumes about the way the government treats the middle class of Canada.
I thought it was most interesting yesterday when my colleague from Toronto Centre made reference to median household income. The government really needs to understand how the middle class has been neglected. When we look at median household income, 50% of Canada's population has received an increase of $100 since the government took office. In fact, if we look at the bottom 20%, we are talking about a decrease of $500.
We need to put in proper perspective how difficult it is for our middle class today and why the government needs to give more attention to this issue.
Look at personal debt today. Never before has it been as high, and the government seems to pay no attention. The government has failed to address what are important and critical issues for our middle class.
Health care is an issue all Canadians are concerned about. There is no issue more important in terms of a social service provided by the government than the issue of health care, with the possible exception of some of our pension programs and veterans' services.
What have we seen? The government has dropped the ball in a significant way. It is a government that does not recognize the important leadership role it is supposed to be playing in what is one of the most important issues for Canadians, that being health care.
Why has the Prime Minister not met with his premier counterparts? Why have we not seen an attempt by the government to build on the 2004 health care accord? It was put in place under Paul Martin. Canadians and politicians from coast to coast saw the merits and benefits of that accord.
What has the government done? It has let the clock run down. As of midnight, March 31, that ten-year health care accord has expired, and the government let it go without a whisper. There was no action. There was no indication that it really cared about the future of health care in Canada.
The Conservatives will say that they have increased health care spending to record highs. I will agree that health care spending from Ottawa going to our provinces is at record highs. I will agree on that point. However, it is not the Conservative Party that established the amount of money going to health care today. It was under Paul Martin that the Liberal Party of Canada signed off on the health care accord.
It was the actions of the Liberal Party that allowed the government to claim that we have record amounts of health care dollars going to our provinces.
A member across the floor is heckling with regard to health care cuts during the 1990s. Let me remind the member and the Conservative government that prior to Jean Chrétien, we were allowing the transfer of tax points as a way to finance health care. During the 1990s, I was in the Manitoba legislature, and we were saying that if that was allowed to continue, the federal government would not be financing health care at all in the future. It was Jean Chrétien, during the 1990s, who established the floor and gave the guarantee of health care funding.
No matter how the Conservatives try to rewrite history, former prime ministers Mr. Chrétien and Mr. Martin are the reason we have health care cash flowing.
However, Canadians are saying that they want more than that. They want to ensure that the five fundamental principles of the Canada Health Act are being enforced. They want the federal government to demonstrate leadership on the health care file. There must be standards.
Canadians are concerned about the number of doctors in our communities. They are concerned about wait times in our emergency wards. This is what Canadians want the Government of Canada to show an interest in, but it has not done that. For whatever reason, the current Prime Minister does not believe in the health care Canadians want. I find that most unfortunate. We will continue to push this issue.
Grain has been a very important issue over the last number of months in the Prairies and in my home province of Manitoba. I have had the opportunity to talk a lot about grain in recent months, because there is a crisis on our family farms in Manitoba and in the Prairies.
Imagine having piles of grain in our fields, a lot of it just covered in plastic. Yet we have empty ships in the Pacific Ocean. The problem is that the Conservative government has failed to establish transportation to get that prairie grain to the Pacific Ocean. The people who are paying the price are the prairie farmers, the farmers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, because the government has not recognized that it needed to take action. Yes, it has taken some action, but the government has fallen short, and it is the prairie farmer who is having to pay the price.
I could talk about citizenship and the backlog in processing. It is absolutely terrible the amount of time it is taking to process citizenships.
On crime and safety issues, the government needs to do more in regard to getting tough on the causes of crime and on preventing crimes from taking place in the first place.
As my time has expired, my last thought will be in regard to the size of the budget and the undemocratic actions of the Conservative government. It is wrong the way the Conservative government is compiling so much legislation and forcing it through. That is the reason I have only been given 10 minutes. The Conservatives are forcing things through on this important legislation, which is most tragic.