Madam Speaker, a number of weeks ago, in fact in June before we recessed for the summer, I asked a question of the Minister of Finance regarding the CHST, the Canadian health and social transfer, the moneys going to the provinces mainly for education and health care among other things. It is the moneys that come from the federal government in support of health care provincially.
Obviously we are not satisfied with the arrangements. In response to the minister's reply, there is no question that there is an election coming. We are having a bit of fun on the other benches, I can see, but the federal government has just announced that about $4 billion is going to the CHST. I remind the Canadian public that this will bring us back to the same levels of spending that we had in 1994. We will almost 10 years behind the eight ball. Of course, that money will not kick in for another 18 months.
It is money that the provinces and the federal government agreed to, but basically the provinces did it with no guarantees at all coming from the federal government in terms of national standards. The provinces simply bought in with the money, with no guarantees for national standards in the future.
The government is taking a lot of credit for having done this, for putting money back into health care. However, the House will remember that the government created this problem. The government has not fixed it. It has no plan for the future. Basically the government makes it up, fixes it up and rolls along without any consideration for what it will do down the road. Canadians are not satisfied with that approach of stumble along and make it up as we go along. It is an approach that the government has taken for the last seven years and I think the Canadian public is getting wise to it.
Why I say this is that with this injection of money basically on the eve of an election, we can see how quickly the provinces came to an agreement with the federal government. Knowing full well that an election is coming, the government wanted it off the table. Basically the Prime Minister said “Here is the cash. Take it and run. Get out of my way. Incidentally, there is an election coming, so just get out of my hair. Here is the money. Take the cash and run”.
That is not a plan. That is just political opportunism for the wrong reasons. Basically the Liberals are hoping for a deathbed reprieve, which the government got in 1997. The House will remember that on the eve of the 1997 election the Liberals threw in a billion dollars to appease the provinces and in the middle of a campaign came up with a promise for pharmacare, a pharmaceutical program and a home care program, a promise that they had no intention of keeping.
It was simply to appease the people, to get them on side, and it was “By the way, an election is coming”. They have not honoured those promises. They have no plans for the future nor do they have a plan going into this election other than “Here is the cash. Take it and run”.
There is an old expression “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”. The Canadian public will not fall for this trick, the same trick that the Liberals used in the 1997 election. They fooled us twice. They are not going to do it—