Mr. Speaker, I asked the question, but I am going to focus as promptly as possible on the motion the House is addressing at the present time. I would like to reread it:
That this House condemn the government for withdrawing from health-care funding, for no longer shouldering more than 14 per cent of the costs of health care, and for attempting to invade provincial areas of jurisdiction by using the preliminary report by the Romanow Commission to impose its own vision of health care.
The statement the hon. member has just made about the last part of the speech by the member across the way refers to the end of it. The federal government claims it has no responsibility to deliver, to assume, health care in the provinces. It is not in the constitution. He admits that. But at the same time he says: “Yes but the federal government has already paid a considerable amount for health care and has passed legislation establishing national standards”. There are five or six principles, including accessibility. He says: “Since we are spending money, even if it is not in the constitution, we want the federal government to have a say”.
Now, it seems there has always been a misunderstanding about health and education. It is mainly the case in those two areas of jurisdiction. The member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot mentioned it earlier. According to projections, in 2010-11, this will represent 85% of the Government of Quebec's spending if nothing is done to change the cost sharing. The same thing goes for the other provinces.
Basically, if nothing is done to gradually bring this fiscal strangulation to an end, this will be the end result. The federal government has reduced its contribution to health and education funding since the abolition of the Canada social transfer, but at the same time it wants to force its own standards on provinces. It is within that perspective that Mr. Romanow is reviewing the system. It is to change the rules.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to inform you that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Drummond.
Before the first world war, there was no federal income tax for services, none for health and education. Moreover, in the early days of Confederation, before the creation of the Supreme Court, the Privy Council in London was responsible for settling disputes between the provinces and the federal government. On two or three occasions, disputes were settled before the Privy Council in London. Each time, when direct taxes were an issue—even though it was about private matters provinces considered direct taxation to be in their area of jurisdiction—, the Privy Council supported the provincial governments' position regarding personal income tax.
As the hon. member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot reminded us earlier, during the second world war the federal government asked for more and again asked the provinces' permission—as it had done during the first world war—to collect personal income taxes. This was for a very urgent and important purpose, funding the war effort.
Each time, the provinces allowed the federal government to collect personal income taxes. But after the second world war, having had a taste of personal income tax and finding it easier to ask, the federal government asked the provinces to turn it over for good. At the time, both Ontario and Quebec objected, while the other provinces said “Fine. The federal government can collect taxes as long as we get our fair share”. The provinces agreed, except for Quebec and Ontario.
Finally, under huge pressure, Ontario eventually yielded to the federal government and let it collect personal income taxes in exchange for cash transfers to fund certain types of care.
But Quebec, then under Maurice Duplessis, had objected. It finally decided to raise its own personal income taxes and to set up its own ministry. As a matter of fact, Quebec is the only province with a revenue ministry. It has all the officials and the means needed to collect personal income taxes.
The motion before us today deals with health care. I will remind the House that this is a nearly exclusively provincial jurisdiction.
My colleague, the health critic and member for Hochelaga—Maisonneuve, will confirm what I am saying, but the federal government has jurisdiction over which drugs may be put on the market. This is an area of federal jurisdiction. The federal government decides whether a product is a drug or a medication. It is responsible for labelling tobacco a dangerous product or not. Then there is the whole debate on marijuana—and we are aware of this whole aspect because under the criminal code, the federal government has jurisdiction in this area. But it has never been the intent of the constitution or the confederation for the federal government to have the slightest responsibility for health care or education. But today, we are talking about health care.
However, the federal government, with its spending authority, but especially since the second world war, waded into this area. Some provinces wanted to take part, others did not. The federal government wanted to encourage them by saying, “provinces wishing to intervene in health care can do so, and we will give up to 50%”. This lasted for a while. Then, Ontario found itself in a situation where it was spending at a level higher than the other provinces; the federal government then set a ceiling.
I mentioned it a number of times, and some of my colleagues also said so after travelling across Canada with the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development during the social program reform—the famous Canada health and social transfer—that when funding for health, education and social assistance was combined, the government used the opportunity to cut the accessibility to employment insurance, which was known as unemployment insurance at the time. A number of provinces, the Atlantic provinces in particular, said that they would have preferred the federal government give them money to provide health care.
However, the province of Quebec maintained, “you recognize us as a distinct society, as a distinct province, so let us keep our taxes so that we can respect the spirit and the letter of the constitution in matters of health”. This idea was never greeted favourably.
Even the constitution scares this government. They do not respect its spirit. The member who spoke before me said, “yes, but since we are spending so much money, the federal government should have its say”.
What he should have said, and what would be more realistic, is that the government should ensure its visibility in health and other fields. Yet, we see the federal health department putting out ads on all sorts of topics, even erectile dysfunction—I see this brings smiles to the faces of other members—in a field that does not concern it; it is paying for ads simply to give the federal government some visibility.