Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary talked about how the government inherited such a problem and did such a good job at managing to bring down the deficit. I remind the parliamentary secretary that a good deal of the so-called good management was as a result of the growth in the economy.
He will recognize that over $25 billion of new revenue came into the government per year over the last several years, largely due to exports and a very rapidly expanding economy in the United States, our major trading partner. When that is coupled with the $6 billion in cuts to transfer payments to the provinces it goes a long way toward contributing to the difference between the current position we have financially and the deficit the Liberals inherited.
The parliamentary secretary talks about how they will restore funding in the areas of health care, advanced education and welfare, the so-called capped block funding to the provinces. They will restore funding from $11.5 billion to $12.5 billion. I remind him that it was his government that cut those transfers to the provinces from $18.5 billion down to $11.5 billion, a cut of some 35%. Now the Liberals will restore funding by $1 billion, bringing the level up to $12.5 billion. There is still a $6 billion difference.
Many people blame the provinces for the difficulties they have had during the last few years with programs such as health care, in particular the cost of health care. They could not deliver services as adequately as they would have liked. Those problems have mostly been associated with the provinces balancing their own budgets. I remind people watching the debate today that a good portion of the pain suffered was due to cuts made by the federal government to transfer payments.
Does the parliamentary secretary recognize there is still only one taxpayer in the country? Provinces have the job of administering health care but the federal government has been steadily reducing its commitment from the time the Canada Health Act came into effect some 30 years ago. The federal government commitment has gone from about 67% down to a low of 18%. The provinces administer the health care system largely on the basis of raising revenue themselves for funding. Several provinces like my home province of Alberta still have premiums.
How are the provinces to handle this problem if the federal government commitment continues to be less and less every year?