Mr. Speaker, my question for the Minister of Finance is with regard to the new Canada health and social transfer.
The CHST states that health care transfers to provinces may be reduced or cut off whenever the Minister of Health "is satisfied" that a province is not in line with her own interpretation of the Canada Health Act. The cabinet then gets to decide how much funding is cut from the province. This sounds like a recipe for arbitrary command from Ottawa.
Why is the formula of funding reductions not based on an impartial formula laid out in the law?