Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague, the new member for Sherbrooke, who won a victory we are very proud of.
I am happy to rise to speak to the motion we put forward this morning. Our demand is clear. We are demanding, on behalf of the Bloc Quebecois, that the federal government pay back the amounts it has cut from the transfer payments for health, education and social assistance. We are requesting that the House of Commons, and I quote from the motion put forward by the Bloc Quebecois:
—endorses the provincial consensus reached in Saskatoon on August 7, 1998, that the federal government must restore, via the existing provisions of the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST), its contributions to front-line health-care services, starting with a payment of at least $2 billion, given that the federal government has already recorded an accumulated surplus of $10.4 billion for the first six months of the 1998-99 fiscal year.
In fact, since 1994, the Liberal government has cut $6.3 billion from transfer payments to the provinces for health, education and social assistance. Quebec's portion of these cuts amounts to $1.8 billion, including $1 billion for health only. What does this $1 billion represent annually? Wait till you hear this, because the list may be a long one.
This amount stolen by the federal government represents, in Quebec alone, 20% of the cost of running all the hospitals in Quebec and the c1osure of half the hospitals in the Montreal region. I come from a Montreal riding and I can talk about it for a long time. This amount represents the cost of caring for 370,000 in-patients, the salaries of half the nurses in Quebec, the cost of running all local community service centres and twice the cost of all youth services.
Yet, the Prime Minister said, during the 1993 election campaign, and I quote:
Our program does not include any plan to cut payments to individuals or provinces, it is clear and it is in writing.
Once elected, the Prime Minister did not hesitate to break his promise. By merging all transfer payments to the provinces into the Canada health and social transfer, the government cut transfers and shifted to the provinces, including Quebec, the cost of the fiscal restraint policy.
It is unacceptable for the federal government to use the fact that the provinces decide how to allocate the money as a smoke screen to hide the damage done by its own decisions. Had it not changed the system and introduced the Canada health and social transfer, the Liberal government would have had more explaining to do with respect to the cuts in health care, especially since it reduced cash transfers for social services to their level of 15 years ago. Total transfers currently amount to $12.5 billion, which is a far cry from the $18.8 billion in 1993, when the Liberals were first elected.
My words are not too strong. It is unacceptable for the federal government to cut transfer payments unilaterally by 33% in less that four years. If you take into account the increase in population and cost of living, social transfers have never been that low in decades. In 1998, we have social transfers which are 45% lower than their record level of 1985 and 43% lower than their 1994 level.
Thus, within only one term, the Liberal government has virtually cut in half the federal contribution to health care and then it brags it has eliminated the deficit. The truth is it has not eliminated the deficit, it has transferred the debt to the provinces and to the sick who are affected by these cuts.
Besides, while cutting billions of dollars in provincial transfers for health and social programs, the federal Liberals never stopped interfering in the health sector, and in a heavy handed manner.
First, I will mention Bill C-14 on drinking water, that infringes upon health, natural resources and the environment, three exclusive Quebec jurisdictions. Moreover, this bill provides for national standards on the quality of drinking water, which is also a provincial responsibility.
That is not all. The Liberal government has proposed an overall policy on the management of new reproduction technologies. Once again, the federal government is interfering in provincial jurisdictions.
As for health programs, for home care, the Liberal government refuses to give the provinces the right to opt out with full financial compensation. On this issue, we see a replay of the millennium scholarship project. I want to remind the House that this is a $2.5 billion fund aimed at providing students with 100,000 scholarships of $3,000 each, based on merit.
I also want to remind the House of the consensus on this issue in Quebec. Since 1964, Quebec has used its right to opt out with full compensation. Quebec set up a financial assistance system for students in 1964. This is what we used the opting out with full compensation provision for. Our financial assistance system might not be the best in the world, but at least Quebec students graduate with half the debt load of their counterparts in the rest of Canada. This is exemplary. This is what one uses opting-out with full compensation for: to let the provinces run services they can manage better than the federal government.
That is not all. In its 1997 budget, the federal government announced a $150 million three year fund for health services adjustment to help provinces set up pilot projects to provide home care or pharmacare, when Quebec already had its own programs.
The Constitution prevents the Liberal government from opening federal CLSCs in Quebec. This is fortunate, because the federal government provides services through the back door, as it is doing now in education with the millennium scholarships.
Moreover the health minister is going to spend $50 million over three years to set up a national health information system and $100 million over three years to improve two existing programs, the community action program for children and the Canada prenatal nutrition program. Is it not ironic for the government to find millions of dollars to enhance its visibility when it refuses to reimburse the provinces for the shameful cuts they had to endure.
On September 7, 1998, the Minister of Health mentioned in his speech before the Canadian Medical Association that he wants to create a national report card on the health care system to assess, each year, the quality of health care in Canada. Once again, the minister seems to be forgetting that health care is a provincial responsibility and, therefore, the provinces are in a better position to know what the health care situation is in their respective jurisdictions.
In conclusion, we urge the minister to say right now that he will not use this annual report card to penalize those provinces that do not want anything to do with it. But, for the Minister of Health, anything is a good excuse not to give the provinces their money back.
That is why the Bloc Quebecois is fighting to help Quebec recover the money that was cut from its transfer payments and will continue to fight until Quebec is treated fairly.