Madam Speaker, I am tempted to say to my colleague that it depends on who is reading the report. I am well aware that Mr. Romanow is a former New Democratic premier.
In response to the 25% share, it says a minimum of 25%. That is the least it should be. Who will assure us that the federal government will go higher than 25%? In the beginning, when the program was created, it was 50%. It was not 25%. Currently, the federal government provides 14%. Now, the report proposes a minimum contribution of 25%. The government is beginning to look foolish, as I said earlier. It has always denied this. We asked many questions about this. Recently the Department of Health again said it was not true, that the figure was not 14%, but that it was now 32%. However, all of the provinces, all of the premiers, all of the health ministers, everyone who has assessed the situation and all those who have tabled reports have said that the funding is now 14 cents on the dollar, not 50 cents any more.
We should not be celebrating the fact that we have been offered a paltry 25% and have been told that this is a minimum. We know how things work around here. We are already being stretched thin at 25%. It would be very difficult to get the 50% that was promised at the outset, when the health care system was created.
As for the federal government's share of the funding, the Romanow report, from our reading of it, proposes increasing federal funding of health care services. However, these payments would be subject to certain administrative conditions set by Ottawa. That is the problem. Why attach strings to the money?
Once again, even though we have repeated it many times, health care services, or health care management, is the exclusive jurisdiction of the provinces. The federal government has no business poking its nose into it. What it should do is return the tax money collected from Quebeckers and Canadians. That is the priority right now. These returned tax dollars must go toward health.