Airports  Mr. Speaker, this morning the Minister of Transport made some questionable remarks about the airports at Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John. In those remarks he said “I come from Toronto. We have one airport that serves eight million people. If someone wants to come there it takes a three hour drive.

Airports  Mr. Speaker, that is a nice long answer, but the only conclusion I can draw is that he is getting the people of New Brunswick ready for some bad news. Will the minister just stand and say that Saint John, Moncton and Fredericton will keep their airports as they have for decades and decades and decades?

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I just wondered if the hon. member for St. John's East could help us. It is my understanding that Marine Atlantic had a board of directors that spent about a year travelling around the world looking for alternative craft, alternative ferries, to provide better service.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member from the NDP for her support even though we have fundamentally different perspectives on how this should work out and how it should be handled. I do take exception to her statement that the Conservative policy is much the same as the Liberal policy.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I acknowledge the remarks made by the previous speaker from the Bloc. He said that he was not going to support the motion because there was nothing in it that dealt with the jurisdiction of the provinces over the feds. I just wondered if he would elaborate on his view of the subject.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, the member's question is interesting. That is exactly the policy we used to have. The member for Churchill has described a policy we used to have wherein the Department of Transport managed and operated all airports in Canada. The stronger ones which had more economic opportunities and were more viable supported the weaker ones.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I do not think the government has done anywhere near enough to address the problem. The problem is fundamental. We need a co-ordinated transportation system. We cannot make these decisions based on putting more money into small projects, or making a deal on certain provincial highways, or pouring more money into VIA Rail to help it survive but not making a change.

Supply  moved: That this House recognize the urgent need to address the serious transportation problems facing the Canadian people, and call upon the government to establish a comprehensive national transportation policy that demonstrates leadership on this issue and which provides solutions to the problems shared coast to coast by all Canadians.

International Organizations  Madam Speaker, it is certainly a pleasure to rise today. It is getting to be a bad habit in that I am following the hon. member for Halifax West again today as I did last night, but I guess I could do a lot worse. I want to put my comments about this important issue on the record.

National Highways  Mr. Speaker, if the parliamentary secretary flips over the pages I sent him and reads on to next year's estimates for contributions to the provinces, he will see that Nova Scotia falls off the page completely. It gets zero while the Outaouais gets a raise to $5 million. How does the province of Outaouais get $9.7 million in the next two years when the province of Nova Scotia gets less than $2 million?

National Highways  Mr. Speaker, I just sent over a copy of the Department of Transport estimates for this year to the government side. In those estimates there is a line that says “contributions to provinces toward highway improvements”. Then, in the list of provinces, there is the province of Nova Scotia which gets $1.8 million.

Supply  What else does it say? It is full of good promises. “A new Liberal government will pursue a strategy, together with representatives of provincial and territorial governments”—why does it not do that—“health care service providers, private payers”—private payers, is that not interesting—“and consumers to address the fact that drugs have become an essential component of health care.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member does make an excellent point. Our party's main point is there has to be a stable funding program on a long term basis, a program which will allow the departments of health in the provinces to have a long term plan. This is not an industry or a business that can have a six month plan or even a five year plan.

Supply  The minister said that the helicopter situation is a top priority. I think he is now saying that the file is moving. Well, it is moving awfully slowly. It is the same with the health care file. The government talks about solving the health care problem but it does absolutely zero about it.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, it is certainly a pleasure to rise and speak to this motion today. I find the motion takes a strange direction. Rather than have a negative approach, why do we not have a positive approach? Why do we not say what we can do and not what we cannot do? Why do we not say what we need is to replenish the health care system back to where it was in 1994, or 1995 at least, rather than where it is now, where there is such a crisis in health care and no one knows whether they can get a doctor, whether the doctor who comes to their community is going to stay, whether he is going to leave and what is going to happen?