Thank you, Madam Chair. The Member raises a concern that we should be putting more money into social programs, specifically health and social services. When I was Health Minister for five and a half years, I made the comment repeatedly that if you doubled the budget of health care, we’d be back within a year or a year and a half saying we need more to do all things for all people. I don’t think, looking to the fact that other jurisdictions are spending 40 to 45 percent of every dollar on health care, not social services, not housing, not anything else, is a sign of success. The reality is, every jurisdiction will tell you that they’re on the fast track to bankruptcy. The sign of spending that kind of money, untrammelled, uncontrolled health care costs, is not affordable. That’s a practical reality.
I think we should take considerable comfort in the fact that we have a combined system, not just health care as a stovepipe, but when you link all the social programs we provide, we provide a selection of services that I have always said are, in my opinion, without equal in any other jurisdiction. You talk about the $180-some million we put in subsidy programs, our medical travel, our support for seniors, our no rent or modest rent for seniors over 60, we have an array. If this Legislature decides that they want to, in fact, spend 40 cents of every dollar on health care, and at the same time agree that we’re not going to raise taxes, and at the same time agree that we want to do all these other things, then we best gather around the table and sort that particular direction out, because we’ve been managing ourselves very, very carefully to stay fiscally balanced to make sure we have all those services there and at the same time do the investments in infrastructure and do all the other things that are critical to our territory.
I would suggest that when you look at the whole package that we put forward as a Legislature as a budget, that a lot of the issues that are not directly health related are tied to health care. The quality of life in the communities, the housing, the water, the roads, the ability to get a job, all those things are tied, in the long run, to health care.
I appreciate the Member’s concern, but I would strongly speak against looking to those poor jurisdictions that are paying that kind of money on every dollar to try to deliver health care costs, when they will stand up and all say that if we keep on this path we will be bankrupt.