Madam Speaker, this almost sounded like a speech. I will have a hard time commenting on all the issues raised.
I will quote from a document that is not from the Bloc Quebecois, but from the Library of Parliament: “During the 80s and 90s, the federal government, in its effort to reduce the deficit, limited on several occasions the growth of transfers made under two programs, namely the Canada Assistance Plan and the cost sharing programs. This adversely affected the provinces' public finances and their ability to financially maintain their health insurance plans and social programs”.
A document from the Library of Parliament states that this government adversely affected the provinces' ability to maintain their health insurance plans. This study was released in July 1997.
I will now quote some figures, which I have here with me. For the coming year, the Quebec government will spend $13 billion on health and social programs. This is the same amount as in 1996-97.
The amount of money allocated to health and social programs by the Quebec government remains at a very stable level. It is true that, because of growth, this means that, in real terms, some cuts were made. The actions taken by the federal government during its last mandate resulted in a $7 billion shortfall for the Quebec government.
When the member says that the Quebec government made cuts totalling $3 billion or $4 billion, he should congratulate it for having managed to somehow absorb half of the cuts, instead of passing them on to someone else. The member should be pleased and he should congratulate the Quebec government for having successfully met that challenge, in spite of this blow—I was going to use some unparliamentary language—from the federal government.
Let me elaborate on these figures and give them a regional dimension. Back home, in the Abitibi—Témiscamingue region, federal cuts in health amount to $25 million annually. This is the equivalent of the budget of the general hospitals in Val-d'Or, Amos and Rouyn-Noranda, and even more. After making cuts of $25 million in my region, the federal government is now claiming that health is one of its major concerns. Nobody believes them, and it is certainly not the member for Vaudreuil—Soulanges who will make people change their minds about that.