Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm curious to understand the opposition's position. It wasn't worth calling an emergency session when the federal government made its announcement regarding the future of health care funding. Instead they had to wait until the provinces met, and only then did they act. In effect, the NDP is acting very much like the head waiter to the provinces. Your party was not prepared to act on its own, but only when the provinces once again had the line that it wasn't enough. Of course, we all know that it never is enough.
The move was called “unprecedented”, as in, “it has never happened before”, but in 1995 the federal government announced the cut of health transfers by 30% with no consultation and no discussion. When I heard the premiers saying that this was “unprecedented”, I thought back to 15 short years ago, when an announcement was made that cut health transfers by 30%.
Instead our government has announced that funding will hit an all-time high of $40 billion by the end of this decade, yet the premiers chose to call that “unacceptable”. I just don't believe that lines up with the views of Canadians, who think that there is a problem with health care: money is being spent in the system, but it's not achieving results at the back end. The solution is not just to throw more money at the problem.
As well, the government is accused of walking away from health care. We're leaving $40 billion on the table, yet walking away is the implication. Again, I would say that's ridiculous: it is federal legislation--the Canada Health Act--that oversees health care in this country.
I also want to take a few moments to point out a few errors in the member's facts. She says that the federal government only funds 20% of health care in this country. That is total and absolute nonsense. First of all, the federal government never funded 50% of health care. That is simply not true. In fact, in a piece Roy Romanow had in The Globe and Mail earlier this month, he said the high was about 40%, so I'd urge the NDP to get on the same page on that issue.
In the late 1970s the federal government moved from a cash transfer to tax points. Provinces don't talk about that huge transfer anymore. They have chosen to pocket it and forget that those tax points came from the federal government. In addition, Ottawa and Health Canada fund aboriginal health in this country; it amounts to billions of dollars every single year. On top of that, let's not forget about equalization transfers that go to the have-not provinces; again, that's billions of dollars that go directly to health funding.
If you add these all up, you're getting very close to 40%, the supposed historic level of federal funding of health care. This 20% number is a provincial, partisan number meant to drive the federal government to open the wallets of taxpayers even further, when in fact the federal government's spending on health care has never been higher.
I'm always willing to come to Ottawa to talk about this important file; it's part of the job, even if it was a bit disruptive to be here today. However, I'm a bit irritated by the weakness of the NDP argument today on this file, and I take the point of the Liberal member across the aisle: is this the health committee or the finance committee? The questions today seem to be directed more to the finance committee; for that reason, I'll be voting against the motion.
Thank you.