Mr. Speaker, on November 28 I rose in the House to ask a question of the finance minister regarding the Canada health and social transfer. My question was whether the government would consider changing it. It has been a complete policy failure.
When I talk about the CHST, I am talking about the moneys that the federal government transfers to the provinces for health, welfare and education. Because the House has been preoccupied for a number of years on the health care file and the difficulty the provinces have in delivering health care because of the huge, massive cutbacks by the federal government, I suggested that the government reconsider that transfer and identify very clearly how much money is going to health care in the various provinces.
I am not alone in this. The Auditor General suggested the same thing back in 1999. In fact, this year in September when she brought down one of her reports which was specifically on health care, again she reminded the government how can we intelligently discuss reforming health care when the Government of Canada cannot tell us how much it is transferring to the provinces? The Auditor General said in her report:
Nor can the federal government say what its total contribution to health care will be. Consequently, parliamentarians must make decisions about federal support of health care delivery without adequate information on the federal contribution.
We cannot nor would we be expected to make intelligent decisions unless we know how much is being transferred. The Auditor General has picked up on that and she went on at great length and in detail.
As evidence of this, most of us watch television from time to time, and there is an ad that is being run by the provinces suggesting that the federal government is only putting in 14% of the total health care bill. The provinces are saying they are paying 86% of the cost and the federal government is paying 14%. The Government of Canada does not know if it is 86%. It does not know if it is 85% or 84% or less. It depends on what province it is.
The point is that is a policy failure which the Government of Canada must address. Romanow recognized it. Kirby recognized it, as did Mr. Mazankowski, and the list goes on. Every time a royal commission or a provincial commission has been set up to examine health care expenditures and the role of the federal government, they have concluded, as has the Auditor General of Canada, that the federal government simply does not know.
Let us recognize that the former minister of finance made a mistake. The Government of Canada made a mistake in 1995. We want to get rid of the smoke and mirrors. Let us truthfully and conclusively, without the use of tax points which is another confusing issue, tell the provinces how much they are getting for health care. Then we can make the necessary changes to improve the health care system in Canada.