We need to consider separate factors from what the Member has suggested. What he’s saying is we should be able to neatly budget what the costs will be and have better control, although that’s one definition of control.

The second thing is, are you just going to spend and spend and spend and not have control? In health care we need a third factor, which is what we’ve been saying all along, that we are working within the system to be ready to respond to manage our resources wisely, but there is no way you are going to have a budget that is going to anticipate, predict and neatly categorize that we are going to have a 3 percent increase, 4 percent increase or a 5 percent increase. That is not possible. One person could walk in tomorrow and need a blood transfusion and that is a $600,000 item. It may not happen, but it could happen. We could have a major... Cost control in that way in health care is not possible.

I know the Member would like us to have a budget prediction, be able to forecast everything, but that is not possible because we respond to the demands of the people. When they need their procedures, they get them. We pay for them. If they need medical travel, they get them. If they need an MRI, they get them. If they need a CT or if they need their knees or hips replaced, we do them. We don’t know how many people are going to need them.

What we could do is we respond as a system to make sure that we use our resources wisely. Even with the Edmonton situation at the airport or the 48-hour rapid repatriation, our system is responding by

working our resources wisely and communicating better. But the health care budget is not like the transportation budget or even the education budget where you can see the trend of population at schools. Thank you.