But health outcomes is not a black and white equation, Minister. Because health spending goes down in the province, it doesn't suddenly mean that quality and timely access to care is being given. I also think this is a gross inequity. I just wondered if you had a plan to fix it, and obviously you don't, because you think it's a good idea.
Now, I want to suggest that the $41.2 billion that was put back into health care over this last decade ending in 2014 was put in by, as you well know, a Liberal government with a 6% escalator clause. That brought up health transfers to the provinces and the federal part of health funding to 20%. The change, when you go to the 3% in 2017, is going to continue now to bring down the health portion of funding so that, as the Parliamentary Budget Officer said, it is going to drop to 13% from 20% in the next 20 years.
This will mean, given that the government continues to say that health is a provincial jurisdiction, that the ability to deliver good care to people will depend on the province in which you live, as we've already heard from the Canadian health reports out of CIHI, etc.
So the question is what are you going to do? This is going to mean that medicare is at risk now. Are you going to take steps to make sure that the funding remains at 20% or at least goes up to 25%? Because the track you are on is going to decrease funding to 13% of the federal share.