Mr. Speaker, I am glad to have the opportunity to speak to the Bloc's motion concerning the Canada health and social transfer.
While its wording is a little extravagant and its claim somewhat exaggerated, the motion's analysis of the CHST that it does not go far enough toward the decentralization of health, advanced education and social assistance is one that we as Reformers could agree with.
Like the Bloc, Reform believes that the federal government must give the provinces, which have exclusive constitutional jurisdiction over the programs, more freedom to design and administer social programs. We share the Bloc's belief that programs of this nature should be delivered by levels of government closest to the people rather than by distant federal bureaucrats. Unlike the Bloc, however, Reform differs in how to decentralize the powers.
The Bloc has only one solution to our nation's problems, separation, but we in the Reform Party do not want to destroy Canada. We want to build it.
Reform believes that the solutions to our problems lie not in separation but in legislation and negotiation. Our Constitution already grants us the flexibility we need. Over its first 128 years the Canadian federation has proved to be extremely malleable. It has bent and reshaped itself to meet the needs of the day. Even in the absence of full scale constitutional reform I am confident our federation will adapt again to the needs of circumstances in the next 128 years.
In defence of the government, the Canada health and social transfer is a modest example of rebalancing the federation through legislation. While the government's primary motive in creating the Canada health and social transfer was to save money. a secondary intention is undoubtedly to further decentralize programs. The most promising element of the CHST is the government's decision to remove all federally imposed restrictions on welfare funding except the residence requirement.
By shifting to unconditional block funding the federal government gives the provinces more freedom to experiment and to innovate. It will allow the people of each province to decide how best to deliver the services the citizens want. Unfortunately this decentralizing thrust is not extended to health care and advanced education, the other two components of the Canada health and social transfer.
The federal government's refusal to amend or reinterpret the Canada Health Act and the pooling of health, welfare and education funds into a single transfer payment give Ottawa an even bigger stick with which to beat the provinces into submission. It is a backward step that will make it more difficult for the provinces to control their health care costs.
This aspect of the Canada health and social transfer is a perfect example of the federal government trying to have its cake and eating it too. In the budget the Liberal government unilaterally reduced its cash transfers for health, education and welfare by some 40 per cent, yet at the same time it is continuing to insist that the provinces play by its rules.
This just is not right. If the federal government wants to set the ground rules in areas of provincial jurisdiction then it has to pay its share of the burden. If it is no longer willing or able to put up the dollars, which describes the present situation in Canada fairly accurately, it must be prepared to step aside and let each province decide how best to provide for its citizens' health care needs.
The truth is that the federal government cannot afford to use its spending power the way it did in the 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s. The country is broke. It does not have the funds to deal with the programs as it has in the past. The federal debt, as we all know, is somewhere around $550 billion.
Just as important in political terms, further centralization is a non-starter all across Canada, not just in Quebec as the motion indicates. People are demanding the power and decision making be pushed down to the lowest level of government, to the grassroots. The Liberals are strong believers in central government. We can believe in rigid national standards but we can simply no longer afford them either fiscally or politically. Nor are they administratively responsible at this time in our history.
There is an alternative path we can follow toward a more flexible and decentralized federation which will offer provincial governments the freedom they need to make the choices they want for their respective citizens. To illustrate the alternative vision I look at the Reform taxpayers' budget that was presented to this assembly.
An amazing fact that no one picked up on in the budget is that the Liberals, the party of compassion, cut almost twice as much from the programs that make up the Canada health and social transfer as Reformers recommended in their alternative budget. In our taxpayers' budget we recommended reductions of $800 million in health, $200 million in education and $2.5 billion in welfare, for a total of $3.5 billion of expenditure reductions over a three-year period. In contrast, the government's budget reduces the cash transfer components of the Canada health and social transfer by $6.6 billion over the same three years. Who
has the most compassion in terms of the social needs of Canadians?
What distinguishes our proposal from the Canada health and social transfer is the decentralizing aspects of the taxpayers' budget. I would like to talk briefly about one element of the decentralizing initiative, the unconditional transfer of tax points to the provinces, which the budget of the Liberal government denies the provinces and Canadians.
The most significant difference between the CHST and our own Reform proposal is that we would transfer additional tax points to the provinces, whereas the Liberal budget would not. This is important for two reasons: first, because it provides increased flexibility and, second, because it ensures the stability of funding for the provinces.
On the first point, we all realize that the federal government can no longer continue to spend money it does not have. We in the Reform Party have openly acknowledged that and have stated publicly that as part of the Reform's deficit elimination plan we would cut $3.5 billion over a three-year period in the areas of health, education and welfare. Reformers also realize that if provincial governments are to absorb reductions of this magnitude they will need the freedom to innovate and to discover more efficient ways of delivering services.
That is why our tax point transfer is unconditional, with no strings attached. It is designed to provide maximum flexibility to the provinces of Canada.
On the second point, if provincial governments are to effectively provide these services then they must be given the resources to fulfil their responsibilities. They must be able to count on stable, long term revenue resources. Yet under the CHST this security does not exist. The federal government can unilaterally, at any time, reduce or alter the transfer to the provinces. This provides provincial governments with neither stability nor security.
Under the Reform's tax point transfer alternative, provinces would no longer have to guess how much Ottawa was going to send to them; they would know. This would allow them to extend their planning horizons, confident that money is going to be there. In addition, since the value of the tax points grows along with the economy, Reform's proposal would effectively increase funding for these programs over the medium and the long term.
In conclusion, Reform and the Bloc agree on the need for greater decentralization of powers to local and provincial governments. We also agree that the government's new Canada health and social transfer does not adequately meet this need. However, unlike the Bloc, we do not advocate destroying the country; we advocate rebuilding it. I would hope the suggestions we offer as the Reform Party here today, including the concept of transferring additional tax points to the provinces, will mark a positive beginning in this rebuilding process in our Canadian social fabric.