Madam Speaker, I will share my time with the hon. member for Lotbinière, but it does not mean that all Bloc members will do the same.
Needless to say that I am disappointed, because there is an important flaw with respect to health care. If this government is really concerned about social justice and the future of Quebecers and Canadians, we would have expected it to have realized that the editorial writers, who represent an important segment of our society, are unanimously asking the federal government to increase transfer payments, and health transfers in particular, so that those who work on the front line, that is the provinces, can meet the particular needs of their citizens.
This is contemptuous and ridiculous. Even in our wildest dreams, we could never have imagined that a government could be so insensitive to public needs. How can the government table such a budget when a month ago, not far from here, in the Hull region, all the provincial premiers, whether Tory or NDP, masterfully led by the Premier of Quebec who, as you know, runs a fair government for the people of Quebec, were saying “Funds have to be released to the provinces for health purposes”.
It was estimated that some $4.2 billion were required. The Premier of Quebec said that, of this amount, $1 billion should go to Quebec, with $500 million going to health and $500 million to income security and education.
I will get a chance to come back to this, but the time is coming when it will be important for all Bloc Quebecois members and all other members in the House to come to grips with the structural pressures in the health system that make new investments in health care now imperative, or the future looks grim.
Let it be perfectly clear. The Quebec government has done everything it could with the resources at its command. I ask my hon. colleague and chairman of the health committee to pay attention to this. We will keep introducing motions for the committee to visit places where people actually experience problems in order to put maximum pressure on this very unresponsive government.
The health minister, Mrs. Marois, is always very well informed of what is going on in the system, and she knows what Quebecers want. Jean Charest himself said the same thing in the National Assembly: the first priority of Quebecers is their health care system.
The natural increase in health care expenses is 5%. That means $500 million.
If we calculate the part the Quebec government will receive from that miserable, shameful, insufficient and ridiculous $2.5 billion spread over four years, we arrive at $70 million a year.
This is absolutely outrageous, and it is why Pauline Marois said that it will not even pay for the operation of the health system for three days of this week.
What will we do in Quebec with the $500 million, the figure the Prime Minister talked about, at the first ministers' conference in Hull, for health care alone—$1 billion in total, $500 million for health?
I will give a few specific examples, especially for the benefit of the members opposite. I know I can count on my colleagues from Longueuil, Portneuf and, of course, on the talented and learned member from Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, who has been working on this issue for seven years. What would we do with $500 million? This is about a quarter of the operating budget of Montreal's hospitals; half of the budget for all the CLSCs.
Allow me to digress for a moment, to say that people from almost everywhere in America come to Quebec to find out how unique the CLSCs are, because such local community social service centres do not exist elsewhere, that is, a front line service, in some cases open 24 hours a day, at least to provide information by phone on emergency matters, and a front line network totally dedicated to people in key areas like seniors health and children's health from birth to adulthood and community groups as well. So, from almost everywhere in North America—I refrain from saying “the world”, because it could be a tiny bit pretentious—people come to find what CLSCs, which are unique to Quebec, are about.
As for the $500 million we are out by—annually, that is—it represents nearly half the budget for the whole CLSC network. It is the equivalent of the budget allocated to home support. It is well known—and I address this issue in a moment—that one of the structural pressures in the health care system is the fact that never before in the history of mankind have people lived so long. Not only do they live longer but some—not everyone of course, understandably—remain in good health longer. That is why old age is no longer synonymous with golden age, it actually comes after. Chances are excellent for all members in this House—that is at least my wish for everyone here—to get to old age.
Imagine the sharp mind of the Minister for International Trade at 80. I cannot think of him as one who would knit or play cards. I imagine him as alert and—a little like yourself, Madam Speaker—playing golf. For that to happen, it is important that the federal government transfer the money it owes the province. In light of the extent of the cuts it imposed unilaterally, this is hardly a handout.
Allow me to digress again. Is there someone in this House who will dare rise and say that $45 billion worth of cuts, which will be lowered to $33 billion by 2003, is an act of co-operative federalism? Did the premiers ever meet and discuss all this? This is beside the point, and I hope my friend the international trade minister will agree with me that to unilaterally impose cuts of this magnitude is not co-operative federalism.
I now come back this structural pressure on our health care system from our fellow citizens living longer and longer, which means that we will need extremely efficient home support services. We do not want people to be institutionalized longer than they have to; we want them to be cared for in their natural community, by their natural caregivers. But we are short $500 million.
Home support is important. I believe the government must realize this is a provincial responsibility first and foremost. It is out of the question for us to accept that the health minister establish a new shared cost program.
Imagine the paradox if we were to accept, as parliamentarians, a new joint program for home care when the federal government cannot even manage to give us all the transfer payment money we are entitled to.
I will get back to this later. I know I can trust you, Madam Speaker, to give the floor to my fiery colleague from Lotbinière.