Mr. Speaker, first I want to clarify for everybody that tomorrow's meeting is a meeting of health ministers, not first ministers. Obviously that is a key distinction, because first ministers will be left with final decisions around the renewal of our health care system.
Let me speak to the hon. member's specific question. Obviously the CHST is the main funding mechanism by which we transfer dollars for health care to the provinces, and that is a per capita mechanism, but of course the hon. member forgets about the importance of equalization. In fact, in a province like hers, Nova Scotia, equalization is a very important transfer of federal dollars to the province.
I know that sometimes the provinces forget to compute equalization or some percentage of those equalization payments into our total contribution for health care. That is most unfortunate, because in fact unless one includes some percentage of those equalization payments, which I believe now eight provinces in the country receive, one does not have the full picture in terms of the federal government's contribution to funding health care, not only in the hon. member's province of Nova Scotia but in all provinces.