Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, Madam Minister.
From our previous conversations, I imagine you have an idea of what I'm going to talk about today. I know you're not in an easy position. In fact, it is difficult to convince a Prime Minister of Canada to invest in health transfers. It is also difficult to convince a Minister of Finance to be proactive and invest in health transfers. However, I am reaching out to you today. My goal in our discussions today is to reach out to you. You know that I am cooperative by nature, as I demonstrated during the discussions on medical assistance in dying. So, perhaps after our discussions, you will have additional arguments. I will try to give you some figures that will help you convince your colleagues.
In fact, it has been established before this committee that, before the first wave of COVID-19, the health networks in Quebec and the other provinces were already weakened because of chronic underfunding. The pandemic hit, but we were not ready. The networks became even more fragile, to the point that two groups of patients are now affected by COVID-19: those who actually have COVID-19 and those who do not have the disease. By that I mean the people who have been offloaded.
So far, I'm assuming everything is fine and we are still in agreement, because in order to solve a problem in medicine, you have to diagnose it first. That's what I'm trying to do with you.
Do you know how many people have been offloaded in this way? Do you know how many cancer cases were offloaded in the first wave?