Madam Speaker, I am pleased to say that we will support the motion by the New Democratic Party because, in general terms, we think the issue of reinstating transfers for health care to the provinces is not a partisan issue and should be agreed on.
We are very impatient for the government to hear the appeals by all of the opposition parties and by the premiers, who met a few weeks ago in Hull under the capable leadership of the Premier of Quebec.
It is very important that all members take advantage of the NDP motion to truly take note of the extremely urgent nature of the situation. In the 20 minutes I have at my disposal, I will show that if transfer payments are not restored to their 1994 level, as requested by the provincial premiers, the situation will become critical and our fellow citizens will have good reasons to be concerned about the federal government's lack of sensitiveness.
I want to make sure that those who are joining us clearly understand the meaning of this motion. At one point, we feared that the NDP might get carried away and go for national standards, but I am pleased to see that it is not the case. I will summarize the motion and ask the NDP leader to pay a great deal of attention to this.
The motion is that this House calls upon the government to stand up for the Canadian value of universal public health care by announcing within one week of the passage of this motion a substantial and sustained increase in cash transfers for health.
Let us start with the beginning. Between 1994 and 2003, the period for which data are available, we see—as is often pointed out by the hon. member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, who is our finance critic and who has been holding the fort in a remarkable way since the Bloc arrived here—that transfer payments to the provinces will been cut by $33 billion.
The people who are listening to us must know that those who are telling us about co-operative federalism and who think that a federal-provincial conference was held to discuss these issues are wrong.
Callously, irresponsibly and without warning, the Liberals, who have brought us one of the blackest periods of federalism this parliament has ever known, decided unilaterally to cut provincial transfer payments. What happens when $33 billion are slashed? Zeros start showing up on the bottom line.
I remind the House that the provinces are responsible for providing services directly to the public.
I should mention in passing that the Constitution makes it very clear that it is not the federal government that provides services to the public. What is the federal government's role? My friend the member for Beauharnois—Salaberry knows. Its responsibility is limited to aboriginals—not that they are unimportant—and veterans.
The government cut provincial payments by $33 billion and the result was to threaten the delivery of services to the consumers who need them.
This is quite a remarkable state of affairs. Federal-provincial diplomacy has reached a point not often seen in recent years. All provincial governments, whether New Democratic, Progressive Conservative, or Parti Quebecois, are unanimous in their conviction that things have to be changed and are demanding that the federal government restore transfer payments.
As we know, Quebec has a very advanced health care system, which is a very valuable legacy of the quiet revolution. A few days ago, and I am sure the member for Beauharnois—Salaberry will recall—Claude Castonguay, who was one of the fathers of the health care system and no sovereignist, as everyone knows, appeared before the committee studying Bill C-20. He noted the originality of the Quebec health care system and expressed concern at the federal government's totally obstinate refusal to reinstate transfer payments.
I want to be very specific. When we speak of transfer payments, I want it to be clear for those watching us at home that it can mean health care, post-secondary education or income security.
A few weeks ago at the meeting held in Hull, the Premier of Quebec asked for roughly $1 billion per year for health care, just for the transfer payments. We agree, it should be annual. On this point, I want to be perfectly clear: this is for Quebec alone.
Between 1994 and 2003, $33 billion will have been cut. It was initially to be $45 billion, but then a few crumbs were handed back. Of the $33 billion annually for health, the Premier of Quebec sought the return of $1 billion for Quebec, at the premiers' conference. This billion dollars was traditionally split between health and the other transfer terms, that is education and income security.
The Quebec minister of health, Pauline Marois, a member of a government that is giving Quebecers very good government in the national assembly, has shown what these cuts to the transfers mean. What does restoring $500 million in health transfer payments mean for Quebec? The $500 million we hope to get on an annual basis for health represent one quarter of the operating budgets of Montreal's hospitals. This is not peanuts. It represents half of the budget for all of the CLSCs.
CLSCs, as I explained yesterday—I will be brief, but I apologize to those members who are hearing this for the second time—are an innovative idea in North America. They form a front line service available to citizens at each stage of their lives, from birth to burial, from perinatal care to home support services.
The $500 million represents close to half of the budget for all of the CLSCs or the total budget for home support services. This is where that money is important, and I will get back to this in a few moments.
Life expectancy is longer than ever before. We no longer just have seniors, but also older seniors. Quebec society is different from the others in that it is ageing faster. If we look at the various age groups, we can see that, proportionally speaking, Quebec society has more members who are 60 or more. Eventually, we will have more people 85 and over than other societies.
Let me give an example that will clearly show the situation. It will take 35 years for the proportion of Quebec's population aged 65 or more to go from 12% to 24%.
For all intents and purposes 35 years from now one-quarter of Quebecers will have reached the 65 and over category. It will take the rest of Canada 45 years to get to that point and Germany 65 years. The population of France, our motherland, the Republic, will be there in 65 years.
All this is not to show how erudite I am but to establish the link between the importance of restoring health transfers and the urgency of providing care to a changing clientele.
I come back to what we will do with the $500 million and the importance of seniors in our society.
The sum of $500 million would mean that home support could be continued. We know that Quebec has begun the shift toward ambulatory care, the goal of which is to provide services in a community setting. Hospitalization is avoided as much as possible.
I am sure that all opposition party members will agree with me that this $500 million we are demanding should be restored. I hope Liberal members will agree as well, but I must admit that we are not too optimistic.
This figure of $500 million is four times the annual budget of the Hôpital Sainte-Justine, a children's hospital. It is three times the budget of the Royal Victoria Hospital. It also represents, and this is important, one quarter of the cost of pharmacare.
We cannot say often enough how pressing this is. If, as parliamentarians, we were to close our eyes and ask ourselves what the public wanted most right now, the answer would be more federal funding for health. That is the simple fact of the matter.
I see some Liberal members who seem to be—