Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to take part in this debate, which I had the opportunity to do on several occasions today. Since the hon. member gave such a well thought out speech, I would like to convey my concerns to her.
Unless one is extremely doctrinaire, it is always possible to agree on a question of principle. The member just said that the Bloc Quebecois will defend the interests of Quebec. I am beginning to make a distinction between defending the interests of the Government of Quebec and defending the interests of citizens, in particular those I represent and the interests of outlying areas of Quebec, which an overwhelming majority of Bloc Quebecois members, people of quality, do defend.
My concern is that when there are requests for transfers for health, for instance, my past experiences in other areas make me wonder a little. For instance, in areas like employment where there have been massive transfers, the effects are still not felt in various regions in Quebec. There is almost no programming left relating to employment activities.
The problem we deal with in our region is also present elsewhere. If health funds are transferred to the Government of Quebec, I would like assurance from the hon. member that those funds will be distributed equitably among the various regions of Quebec. Based on the statistics, the region of Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean, among others, has a very serious deficit compared to other regions in Quebec, namely central regions like the Montreal area. The accumulated deficit is about $75 million. That explains why we face such serious problems.
In my region, we are no longer able to provide good quality health care to our citizens. There is cause for major concern when the population of a region can no longer obtain health care. Health care is a priority. We have to defend our fellow citizens on practical issues.
I agree with transfers to Quebec, but what concerns me is the way the Government of Quebec will transfer the money to regions. This is the concern I wanted to raise during this debate. I am grateful to my colleague from the Bloc Quebecois for having introduced this motion in the House and I hope that this will contribute to improving the way Quebec transfers funds to regions.