Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to address today's motion.
This motion calls for a social union with co-operation between the Government of Canada and the provinces. There is unanimity in this area—with the provinces, with the territories, with medical groups, with nurses' groups and with the opposition. Unanimity is not easily achieved in a country like Canada. It is hard to find unanimity.
In matters of health care, unanimity is necessary and possible.
I would like to approach the motion in as positive and constructive fashion as I can. The social union the provinces have called for relates strictly to the reason I came to the House of Commons, and that is for a health care system that is better than the one we had when I left my practice.
I would like to summarize why the provinces are so vociferous on this issue. This is not being done in a critical sense but in a factual sense.
In 1993 the federal government spent $18.7 billion on social transfers directed to the provinces. For reasons that most Canadians understand, it decided to drop those transfer payments to $11.1 billion, a drop of $7.6 billion. The government did it unilaterally. There was no consultation, no agreement. That action on the most important social program in Canada precipitated a series of events which has led us to the point where the provinces from every political stripe are all united in calling for a social union that will never allow that to happen again.
There could never be a unilateral action of that kind if a social union were entered into. I have listened over and over again to my Liberal colleagues say that there is in fact a very important program, health care, and they are bound and determined to support it. This would be a mechanism where they could do more than just talk.
There is another thing that has made the provinces so unanimous on this issue. I will give an example that does not relate to health care but is about welfare in British Columbia. B.C. set up some residency requirements after the cuts for social assistance took place. The federal response was to fine the B.C. government. It took away transfer payments, even more for social assistance. There was no dispute mechanism, no interchange of information. The federal fist was slammed down and that was the end of the discussion.
That is the reason today there is unanimous provincial agreement for a social union. It is hard to imagine how the provinces could be more unanimous. Who else is unanimous on these issues? Medical colleagues throughout the country are unanimous. Why? Some of our best nurses are leaving their profession. They are not just leaving the country but they are leaving the profession because they cannot stand the workload they now have. The cuts have gone through the system so deeply that they cannot stand the workload they have.