Mr. Speaker, personally, it is great to see you in the chair.
On the question to which the member spoke, I will clarify a few things. First, it is the Ontario provincial government that introduces health taxes, as the member fully knows. The federal government has no basis in that.
The federal government is fully committed to supporting the members of our Canadian Forces. The health and well-being of the men and women who serve in our forces and their families is of primary importance to the government. We recognize the contributions and sacrifices that all of those people have made, are making and will be making in the future, and we honour them. Their quality of life is of the utmost importance to all Canadians and, in particular, to the government.
We are proud to report that since 1996 the basic pay of non-commissioned members has increased 49%. The average wage of the forces now is about $52,000 a year. Base pay improvements, together with the introduction of other benefits, such as tax relief provisions, new allowances and annual pay improvements, are a clear demonstration that our government intends to support members of our Canadian Forces fully. We want to ensure that their cost of living is relatively stable and predictable across Canada regardless of where they live.
The introduction of the Ontario health premium by the provincial Government of Ontario is inconsistent with this principle. The Minister of National Defence has made this point crystal clear to the Province of Ontario. We are appalled by this and the minister is doing all that he can to rectify the problem. He is working with the Ontario provincial government to resolve the issue as soon as possible. He has approached both the ministers of finance and health in Ontario to highlight the unfairness of personnel in the Canadian Forces being charged the health tax when they already receive, as the member correctly pointed out, moneys from the federal government for members of the Canadian Forces and moneys through the negotiations that took place by the Minister of Health earlier this year with all provinces last year amounting to $42 billion.
In addition, departmental officials from the federal government have been working and conducting a review of the post living differential policy framework in order to ensure that CF members in Ontario will have this issue addressed one way or the other. Either we will support and help them or this tax will be negotiated out and removed on the part of the provincial government.
I join with all my colleagues in the government and the Minister of National Defence in reassuring the CF members who are listening today and the member who asked the question that we will do all that we can to rectify the situation for CF members and their families who live in Ontario.
On the issue of medical personnel, the member also should know that the government is working with the provinces to greatly expand the numbers of people in medical school right now. The Minister of Health has put in $50 million to help integrate existing medical personnel from abroad who currently live in Canada so they can get their skills up to speed and be able to work and supplement our current complement within Canada.