Madam Speaker, first, I would like to thank the hon. member for taking part in this debate and for having made a speech here, but I think that she may have missed one or two things in mine. First, Canada is second in the world regarding the overall sums spent on health care. No expert, no economist anywhere would tell us we should be spending more. Not a one. We know that we could even do more with less.
I am sure that Quebec's Minister of Health agrees with me on this point, because, this year, he is proposing a half billion dollar cut, $545 million to be exact, I believe, to the health care budget of the province of Quebec. So he too probably realizes that we do not need to pump more money into the health care system, but to better manage the amounts we do put into it. These things need to be said because this year's transfer payment has not been reduced but increased.
The Canada Health Act gives the provinces a lot of leeway. In fact, they already have all of the freedom they could want, except to levy user fees or charges for hospital care or medical help.
The fact that the Canada Health Act prohibits user fees is important, and Canadians should appreciate that this legislation can help them, especially when they are sick.
The hon. member talked about overlap. The federal government only employs 25 people to administer the Canada Health Act. Is that overlap? In my opinion, we are doing quite a good job, because we are working very closely with the provinces to avoid overlap, especially in the area of health care.
The hon. member made a fine speech, but what I really want to know is the following: Does the Bloc Quebecois support the principles of the Canada Health Act or does it envision a two-tier system? Does it want to bring in user fees? Exactly how does the Bloc Quebecois intend to do things better or to change things? Does the Bloc Quebecois acknowledge that the Canada Health Act has served Canadians very well and that we absolutely must build the system of tomorrow on the values it contains?