Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, both to the minister and to all the officials who are here today. It's always a nice opportunity, and really an important opportunity, as we talk about the main estimates.
I think one of the things that is critically important, of course, is the transfers that we do to the provinces. It's certainly an enormous part of our support for the health care system in Canada. Over the last number of months, I've had a lot of constituents writing to me and suggesting that there has been a cut in terms of the transfers to the provinces, which, Minister, as you're probably aware, is totally inaccurate. I believe that the misinformation should be, and I'm trying to ensure that it is, corrected.
We can certainly see in the budget document where the trajectory has gone in terms of these transfer payments. I understand that our government is going to be increasing payments to the provinces by over $27 billion over the next five years. We have done significant measures in terms of trying to support additional physicians coming into Canada.
I would appreciate if you could set the record straight in terms of the transfers to the provinces and where we're going, and where our commitment is as a government to what is very important in terms of the provinces being able to deliver health care.