Mr. Speaker, let me set the record straight as to the level of priority our government places on health care, particularly with regard to federal transfers to the provinces and territories.
On February 18, for the fourth consecutive year, our government chose to increase transfers to the provinces and territories through the Canada health and social transfer.
In the 2000 budget, we announced the transfer of a further $2.5 billion to the provinces and territories to be used over four years for post-secondary education and health care.
The $2.5 billion is in addition to the greatest investment in the history of our government that was announced in the 1999 budget, an investment of $11.5 billion for health care alone.
The 2000 federal budget proves once again that the health of Canadians and the future of their health care system are among the federal government's top priorities.
The Canada health and social transfer is the most important federal transfer to the provinces. It provides cash transfers and tax points to the provinces and territories to support health care, post-secondary education, social services and welfare programs.
The Canada health and social transfer is a block funding mechanism. It allows provinces and territories to grant funds to social programs according to priorities.
Why am I taking part in this debate on the issue of transfers? Because these last few weeks in my region, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the members of the Parti Quebecois have often talked about the issue of federal transfers, and I wish to present a summary of what was said.
In 2000-01, the Canada health and social transfer to provinces and territories will reach a new height, $31 billion. Of this, there will be $15.3 billion in tax points and $15.5 in cash transfers.
A transfer of tax points is an important part of the ongoing support provided by the federal government to provincial and territorial social programs. A tax point transfer occurs when the federal government reduces its tax rate and allows the provinces to raise their tax rate by an equivalent amount. With such a measure, the provinces can get more revenues without increasing the total tax burden of Canadians.
By next year, CHST transfers to provinces and territories will be $960 per person and, by 2003-04, $985.
My friends of the Parti Quebecois in Abitibi-Témiscamingue should know that, under the CHST, the Government of Quebec will obtain $992 per person in 1999-00, $1,026 in 2000-01, $1,011 in 2001-02, $1,024 in 2002-03 and $1,038 in 2003-04.
However, as the government has said many times, we cannot stop there. The challenge facing the health care sector does not involve only money, it primarily involves changes to the health system.
In its last throne speech, the government reaffirmed its commitment to move forward with its provincial and territorial partners and with the health care sector on common priorities.
Those priorities include testing of innovations in integrated delivery of services in areas such as home care and drug insurance, making sure that citizens from every region of Canada, and rural areas in particular, have improved access through a modern health information system to up-to-date information on health issues and treatment options, to enable them to make better informed choices, and protecting the health of Canadians by strengthening the Canadian food safety program.
The challenge for the government is to identify what changes are required and how the various governments can co-operate to meet the health needs of Canadians now and in the future.
The federal government took the commitment to protect the five tenets of health care as stated in the Canada Health Act. These are: public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability and accessibility.
They reflect the will to give all Canadians reasonable access to insured hospital and medical services in accordance with the prepayment formula and under the same conditions everywhere.
This past year, the health ministers of Quebec and the other provinces made substantial progress in identifying what must be done to meet the short and long term health needs of Canadians.
They acknowledged unanimously that co-operation was the best way of ensuring Canadians of access to quality care and to the information required to make informed decisions for enhanced health and well-being.
We realize that dollars and cents are not enough. There must be investment in health care in order to have an accurate idea of the quality of care provided and the extent to which the system yields good results as far as health is concerned.
Quality of care is not merely a matter of funding. Consideration must also be given to the efficiency and appropriateness of care, treatment and services delivered to the Canadian people, and the integration of those services.
The federal, provincial and territorial governments cannot afford to use our limited resources for health care in an inefficient manner.
That is why the federal government is vigorously in favour of striking a partnership for reforming and renewing the health system.
The provincial and territorial ministers of health have been invited to meet together in May of 2000 to discuss three key issues that must be settled in order to fully resolve the recurring problems in the system and to restore public confidence in health insurance.
The first issue is this: to change the way primary care is delivered, in order to improve access and to adapt human resource-related policies in order to facilitate change.
The second: to enhance home and community care and to examine national objectives in order to integrate these types of care into the health system.
The third one: to strengthen co-operation between the federal government, the provinces and the territories in accounting for the system's performance for the Canadian public, in releasing information on the results obtained and in establishing the bases for public debate on the standards for health care.
As the 1999 and 2000 budgets have shown, the federal government recognizes that stable and predictable federal funding in the health sector is important to ensure the provinces and territories can meet the immediate needs of their residents and plan for the future.
The Canada health and social transfer provides this stability and predictability by guaranteeing an annual financial transfer of $15.5 billion starting in 2000-01 and an overall transfer that will increase to nearly $33 billion in 2003-04.
It is time the governments stopped debating about levels of funding of six or seven years ago and began facing challenges of the Canadian health care system before them today.
The federal government, like the provincial and territorial governments, recognizes that in the future decisions on investments in health care will have to be based on a plan reflecting this desire of Canadians, that the approach to health care will have to be better integrated, new resources will have to be used to meet this need of Canadians, which is to have a quality system.
We have to work together to achieve this shared objective of revitalizing our health care system so it will provide accessible, viable and high quality health care to all Canadians.
In closing, to the nurses, hospital staffs in Canada and to all the doctors who, today, are caring for Canadians, I say thank you for your support.