moved:
That this House urges the government to respect provincial jurisdiction over health care management, to increase transfers to the provinces for health care unconditionally, and to avoid using budget surpluses to encroach upon the health care field.
Mr. Speaker, today as we speak an important federal-provincial conference is being held on the social union. We are aware that at the very heart of this planned social union lies the issue of jurisdiction over health care management and health care services throughout Canada, and all the provinces, including Quebec, of course.
We are also aware that Canadians and Quebeckers want to see major investments in health. There have been unprecedented federal cuts to social programs, half of those to health, and these have jeopardized the provinces' ability to deliver quality health care.
In Quebec, it is the openly stated wish of nearly all stakeholders that health care management be restored to the provinces, that Quebec be the only one involved in its health sector.
The Montreal Gazette —not known for being pro-sovereignist—recently called on the federal government to unconditionally re-establish the health care transfer payments to the provinces.
However, today the federal government's political visibility moves it to do something with the budget surplus, a surplus accumulated on the backs of the provinces, at an annual rate of $6.3 billion, and on the backs of the unemployed and businesses. I remind the House that $20 billion was taken—and that is the nice way of saying it—from the employment insurance fund by this government under false pretences.
Now that surpluses have been accumulated on the backs of the provinces and the unemployed, this government is trying to set itself up as a saviour by saying to people “We will fix your health problems”. And yet it is this government that created the current chaos and the problems the provinces are facing. This government wants to arrive and say “We have the solutions”. It has no solutions, it created the problems. The solution is to return the money where it took it from, where it spirited it away, and I cannot say it any other way, it would be unparliamentary.
There is nothing surprising in the fact that this government has acted this way for years and today talks about transparency, especially in health care, when it spirited away $20 billion on the backs of the unemployed saying “We shall determine employment insurance contributions”. Yet this government does not put one red cent into the employment insurance system, which is wholly funded by businesses and employees. However, this government is taking this money assigned to employment insurance and spending it here and there to reduce the deficit, and is planning to give the wealthy a tax break at the expense of the unemployed.
I remember the Prime Minister stating that he had been paying EI premiums for the past 35 years when in fact he never did. There is cause for concern when the number one decision maker does not even know how the system works.
Like a studious seminarian, the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs recites a litany of so-called federal responsibilities over health matters. What this pious Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs fails to mention, however, is that the federal government acquired these responsibilities in the area of health care over time by interfering in and encroaching on provincial jurisdictions with its spending power.
This spending power is the crux of the political, constitutional and budgetary problem we are facing, which is the focus of the discussions, today, on social union.
This spending power is how the government has managed to intrude everywhere. In every attempt at constitutional reform, the issue of spending power has come up. The Liberal Party has always opposed these reforms and even sabotaged them, to preserve this spending power. And this is particularly true with this Prime Minister.
Members should remember 1982, when Quebec was isolated. Remember the smell in the kitchens of the Château Laurier. Remember that this Prime Minister also derailed the Meech Lake accord with Jean Charest. Remember who said “Thank you, Clyde” in Calgary, and Clyde has now been appointed to the Newfoundland supreme court. These people know how to reward their friends. It is this government and these same people who, for 35 years, have been using all the budget surpluses, while also generating deficits. We are not even talking about surpluses anymore. These people created major deficits by using their spending power to intrude on jurisdictions that are not theirs.
As a result of all this, we now have a $600 billion debt. It is costing us $45 billion annually to service a debt that was generated through unnecessary intrusions. The government created bureaucracies where there was no need for such structures, and it will create yet another by setting up a national health care monitoring system, by using statisticians and controllers such as those who are trying to cut EI benefits, in compliance with this minister's guidelines. Instead of writing books, the minister should start reading his mail and look at what is going on in his department.
These are the same folks who were responsible for such a debt, who have built up an entire bureaucracy when what is needed are not statisticians and inspectors, but doctors, nurses, clinical workers and hospital support workers, because these people do their utmost to deliver good service. We should be singing their praises. They cannot do their jobs because people on the other side have cut $6.3 billion annually. The amount has dropped from $19 billion to $12 billion or $12.5 billion. The government wants us to believe these people added $7 billion. The truth is that the government cut $42 billion and not $49 billion.
Mr. Speaker, I should let you know that I will be sharing my time with the member for Drummondville. Please let me know when I am nearing the end of it.
When the government says it has to ensure the quality of health care, is that not telling the provinces that they are not responsible enough to manage their own affairs? Are provincial leaders being told that they are irresponsible? That they lack compassion? These folks have been running health care in Canada for 132 years. Everything was fine until transfer payments were cut.
Now these people are being told they are not competent to look after their own affairs. Ottawa will take care of it. It is the old “Ottawa knows best” song. We know it. We know how this government likes to meddle in other people's business.
The government gives us the assurances line but the Minister of Finance tells us the reason he is unable to reinvest in health right now is because he does not have all the assurances. Yet Saskatoon has given them.
However, all of the premiers have written recently to tell the Prime Minister what they will reiterate again today, which is that they are committed to scrupulously respect the health care principles underlying the health legislation. They are also committed to invest all of the money in health care. But they do not have to be told to invest it in this particular hospital or in this service. The health care issue cannot be left to bureaucrats or politicians set on gaining more visibility.
Since we are talking about the principles guiding health care management and all health care services throughout Canada, I will conclude by saying that the government is trying to establish a sixth principle, which is visibility, just as they are trying to do with the millennium scholarship fund, another area upon which they should not be infringing. If the Prime Minister is so set on getting more visibility, he could replace the image of Queen Elizabeth II with his own on all $20 bills.
We would get some applause. We would get some laughs. It is not funny but it is laughable and at least it would not be as serious as encroaching on yet another area which is none of their business.