Madam Speaker, I am wondering where the government member is getting his numbers. We know full well the health side of the Canada health and social transfer has been underfunded to the tune of $30 billion since the Liberals came to power.
This year, a meagre $2.4 billion was announced for the whole of Canada. This money will be held in trust and spent over the next three years.
I believe we do not have the same numbers. It all depends on the analysis one is looking at. If the situation is really that bad in health care, the thing to do is not so much putting more money in it as doing it in a different way from before. We need to put money in health care over a five year period, as the Bloc Quebecois suggested, we need stable funding.
Every Quebec leader, including the president of the federation of physicians, is calling for the restoration of health and social transfers to their previous level. This is a far cry from the $2.4 billion the government allocated in the last budget. What we are demanding is $4.2 billion a year, times five, which is at the most $21 billion.
Since the liberal government came to power, help to the provinces in the areas of health, education and income security has relentlessly been cut. Quebec ministers and the other provincial ministers had asked for a Canada social transfer to fund health. They had asked for more stable funding, instead of the iffy funding we are being offered with money held in trust for the provincial governments to spend.
It is very difficult for a government to plan good management when the Liberal government makes such cuts.