Mr. Speaker, I am the health critic for the New Democratic Party, so I read this budget with a particular interest in the provisions around health care. We know that during the last election, there were some very clear promises by the Liberals to the Canadian people. One was that they would allocate $3 billion over four years to home care, which we all agree is very important need in our country.
The Liberals also, without promising it explicitly, left a clear impression that when they renegotiated the health accord, they would address some of the deficiencies that had been put in place by the previous health accord. Yet in this budget, not a penny is allocated or budgeted for $3 billion in home care either this year or in any year, and there is not a single dollar allocated in this budget that would indicate that the health accord would be repaired after 2017 when the 6% escalator is scheduled to drop to 3%.
Would my hon. colleague tell Canadians why there is no money in this budget for home care or a new renewed health accord when that is what her party promised Canadians just six months ago?