Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to extend my greetings to all the witnesses and thank them for their presentations. I would especially like to acknowledge Ms. Silas and Mr. Bolduc, with whom I had the opportunity to work in a previous life.
Our study concerns the labour market and the care economy, among other things. I appreciate the picture painted for us. Unfortunately, I would say that this picture isn't entirely unfamiliar. There were already issues with shortages, the attraction and retention of workers, working conditions and the organization of services. These issues have been exacerbated by the pandemic. It's troubling to see how much the economically and socially critical health care field can be compromised by improper working conditions. Our study will give us some insight.
The great thing about our Canadian and provincial health care legislation is that it seeks to protect universal and free health care. Each province has the right to organize its system, health care and services. In each province, our major unions—which work very hard and which I acknowledge—advocate not only for quality public health care services, but also for working conditions to improve the lives of their members. In Quebec, we also have pay equity legislation, which has been in place for 25 years. I think that tools are available. I would like to applaud the witnesses for all their comments.
Mr. Bolduc, I have a question for you. There's something disturbing about our health care system. For years, while needs have been increasing in each province, federal budgets have been decreasing. Currently, the federal government contributes 22% of the funding for health care, while each province, simply to maintain services, is increasing spending by 5% to 6%. That's the largest budget provided by each province. Unfortunately, the federal government isn't pulling its weight.
Don't you think that the request made by Quebec and the provinces to increase health transfers to 35% of costs would be a good way to steer our health care and social services systems in the right direction and to support workers?