Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be able to rise in the House. It gives me an opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment. I know you are a very understanding person but also very tough. I would like to personally wish you good luck and assure you of my co-operation. It is an honour to see a woman in the chair and I hope that, in the next Parliament, we might see you become the Speaker of the House. That would be an honour for the women parliamentarians here.
I listened carefully to my colleague's speech. I am pleased to learn that he was his province's health minister. The question I want to ask is fairly simple. Earlier, in response to our colleague opposite, he said that the provinces needed money in order to provide health care to their residents. I completely agree. Money is needed. However, that money comes through a transfer from Ottawa to the provinces and to Quebec.
Can he explain to me why his party, when it was in power, cut Ottawa's transfers to the provinces? Can he explain, as a former health minister for his province, how he can allow Ottawa to cut provincial transfers when people are in such great need of those services? I would like him to explain that.