Mr. Speaker, I am proud that my new colleague from Winnipeg was able to bring that seat back to the NDP.
It is important to realize that the Conservatives have proposed cuts which, when they would come into effect, could represent $36 billion in lost transfers to the provinces. This is the first thing that has to be taken care of.
When Tommy Douglas, the father of health care in Canada, brought in free, universal public medical care in Saskatchewan, he always made the point quite clear that we had to complete the system with a pharmacare program worthy of the name, and it is not hard to understand why. We have a lot of acute care beds in our hospitals that are being taken up by people who simply cannot afford their medication. They will get that medication in the hospital, but if they stay at home, they cannot afford it. That is having a throttling effect on the availability of beds in our system, and it is an easy fix.
There are things like group buying with the provinces that could save billions of dollars. All it takes is the will to do it. Never let them tell us that it cannot be done.