I thank the hon. member. His participation in the debate is all the more important since he is a former minister in the National Assembly. I am sure that he is proud of that period in his life.
I hope that we can count on his support, should the Romanow report become government policy. Hopefully, he will support the consensus of the National Assembly.
The hon. member is right to point out that the problem is not with diagnostic services. Seven of the ten provinces have had commissions of inquiry. We know that people will live increasingly longer, that they will want to live in their natural surroundings—this is called home support—and that there will be specialized services, because people who live increasingly longer will live with disabling incapacities for increasingly longer periods of time.
So, we know where the needs will be in the system. What we are concerned about in the Romanow report is not diagnostic services. The Romanow report is the most contemporary voice and the most visible face that federalism wants to adopt to achieve centralization.
Journalist Chantal Hébert, who is no friend of sovereignists, nor considered to be a Bloc Quebecois supporter, said that for the first time in 50 years, social programs are being cast in a centralist frame with the Romanow report. The federal government took a centralist stance on the constitutional issue and now, the Romanow report is giving the federal government another opportunity to centralize on the issue of social programs.
According to the Romanow report, and I heard the commissioner's news conference, there should be a common market of health care systems. He wants a single Canadian health care system. This is nation building with health, with the impetus coming from the federal government. This is what we cannot accept.
When we see the Auditor General's reports, the level of government with the least amount of expertise in health—the federal government manages no hospitals, with the exception of hospitals for the military and aboriginals—the level that knows the least about service delivery, is the federal government. It should have the modesty to recognize this fact.
Our colleague, the member who was formerly a minister in the National Assembly, should add his voice to those of Mario Dumont, Jean Charest and Bernard Landry, and say that the Romanow report should not become government policy beyond its call for transfer payments.
As for accountability, I mentioned this in my comments, and Bloc Quebecois members will repeat it throughout the day. The member is aware, since he was a minister in the National Assembly, that when the opposition asks questions of Mr. Legault, they are about accountability; when the regional health authorities appear before the assembly's social affairs committee to defend their budgets, that is called accountability; when François Legault releases performance contracts, the health care providers' reports, that is called accountability. We did not need the Romanow report to be transparent and accountable to the public.