Mr. Speaker, the Canada Health Act is the instrument which the federal government has to enforce health standards in this country.
There are five principles enshrined in the Canada Health Act. One is universality, which means that the health care system is for all Canadians. The second is comprehensiveness, which means that it will cover medically necessary health costs for all Canadians. The third is accessibility. it is accessible to all Canadians. The fourth is portability so that no matter where you are in Canada, no matter where you live and where you may travel it is going to be available. Finally, it is publicly funded, which means it is on a not for profit basis. That is why we do not have a two tiered system. We do not have a system for the rich and a system for those who do not have the funds. We have one system for all Canadians.
How the federal government manages to enforce those standards is by the cash transfer system. Before the CHST, under the old system we had established program funding. One of the programs was health care.
In Quebec's case, the combination of cash and tax points amounted to what it was entitled to based on the funding formulas. The cash portion in Quebec was going down and was expected to hit zero. I believe the cash amount going to Quebec would have been zero by the year 2005.
If that is the case, I simply ask the member, how can he argue that there were transfer cuts which were inappropriate relative to the Quebec situation?