TORONTO – With the Conservatives’ election platform showing an unexplained $11 billion cut that wasn’t in the budget a mere two weeks ago, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is calling on Canadians to replace Stephen Harper before he starves the health care system of funding.
“Is this what Jim Flaherty meant when the 2011 budget said health care spending post-2014 is ‘subject to change?’” Mr. Ignatieff asked. “That’s just not good enough – not when our health care system needs to get on with the job of making critical reforms including home care and drug coverage.”
Yesterday, the Liberal Leader wrote an open letter to Canadians on the Liberal commitment to health care – including maintaining the 6% funding escalator beyond 2014.
“Stephen Harper has an $11-billion hole in his platform – and only the Liberal Party can replace him before he cuts health care to fill it,” said Mr. Ignatieff. “Mr. Harper must tell Canadians before May 2nd how he will find the $11 billion in cuts that appeared in his platform yesterday – and how he will do it without cutting health care.
“Liberals have laid out a credible two-year plan that does not tie us to long-term spending commitments like $6 billion annual corporate giveaways, $13 billion mega-prisons, or $30 billion stealth fighters – leaving space to secure the future of health care beyond 2014,” said Mr. Ignatieff. “Mr. Harper can’t say the same thing. Before yesterday, he had no room to fund health care, and now with his $11-billion cutback plan there’s even less.”
A $10 billion gap remains between Stephen Harper’s F-35 cost estimates and the Pentagon’s latest price tag, with new evidence emerging this week that the Conservatives are grossly underestimating the actual cost of their $30-billion untendered stealth fighters.
“Stephen Harper’s platform promises can’t be trusted – and the numbers are the proof,” said Mr. Ignatieff. “Don’t forget that Stephen Harper promised not to run a deficit, projected budget surpluses through to 2014, and said Canada would not have a recession. Instead, Mr. Harper took the country into deficit before the recession even hit, and left Canada with a historic record-setting $56-billion deficit and no surplus in sight.”
“Stephen Harper’s numbers just don’t add up – and if he isn’t replaced, Canadian families and our public health care system will have to make up the difference,” Mr. Ignatieff concluded.
