Thank you, Mr. Chair.
That is actually a really pressing question because taxpayers want to make sure that their money is being used correctly.
I'm going to take this in two steps. The first step I'm going to talk about is how the CAF or the department pays for health services.
We have arrangements right now with each province, which are locally negotiated. Now, as we are excluded from the Canada Health Act there are times.... It comes into three buckets. There is an employer health tax, which is sort of a health transfer that a few provinces expect from the Canadian Armed Forces. We then have services for hospital type fees, which can be even $89 to step inside the door, as well as amplified service fees for using facilities. Then we have individual physicians providing care, which, as we all know, are negotiated with the provinces through their respective provincial organizations' associations.
I think the first thing we need to do, as part of the overall health transfer negotiations that are being opened with the provinces, is to say that the federal government runs a health care system—the deliverers of care. We need to have a seat at the table for those negotiations to deal with those rates.
In terms of a component of the health care transfers, especially potentially the one-time component, I think that is definitely worth consideration. What is going to be quite important is to understand that while health care is funded in the military, it is from a fixed budget within the whole defence department. If there isn't enough, as a baseline funding within health care, it comes from something else within the department.
We know that the Canadian Armed Forces needs more funding to do what they're doing—gas for tanks and health care. That's an oversimplification.
Thank you.