Mr. Speaker, it is always with some apprehension that a member takes the floor after a speech by the very eloquent member for Hochelaga--Maisonneuve. With his flair for striking phrases, his passion and rhetorical talent, he is somewhat intimidating for some of us. I will nonetheless try to face the music and share with you and colleagues in the House a few remarks on the important issue before us.
This debate today is not new by any means. By way of background, I would like to explain briefly the overall evolution of Canadian federalism. I may be anticipating my conclusion, but this evolution has been such that Quebecers in particular are now faced with a choice between full control over their own destiny or a Canada that is increasingly centralized, and a leveler of all differences.
As far back as 1942, Ottawa used the war effort as an excuse to impose tax agreements on the provinces. Through these agreements, Quebec, then under the prime ministership of Adélard Godbout, transferred tax points in good faith and stopped temporarily taxing the personal and corporate income in exchange for an annual subsidy.
From 1941 to 1947, Ottawa exercised virtually total control over taxation. Worse yet, when the war ended in 1945, Ottawa refused to hand back to the provinces the powers of taxation they had given it. This spectacular takeover of crucial, significant and vital sources of tax revenue was the beginning of a long centralization campaign by the federal government, a campaign that is still going on.
By exercising the financial powers of the provinces, Ottawa was able to collect a huge portion of the tax dollars and to take upon itself to interfere in areas of jurisdiction where it did not belong. It used its spending power to define Canada-wide standards that totally ignore the division of powers as set out in the 1867 Constitution.
Several successive Quebec governments of all political stripes, from Maurice Duplessis of the Union nationale to the Liberal Party of Quebec and the Parti Québécois, are responsible for setting up a counter-attack to stop Ottawa from interfering in areas where it did not belong.
In 1966, the Canada Health Act was passed, followed soon after by the Health Insurance Act in Quebec. And that is also when it was decided that Ottawa would pay 50% of the health care costs and the provinces, including Quebec, would pay the other 50%.
Since then, the situation has taken a bad turn. Ottawa is withdrawing from the transfer of payments to the provinces through the Canada health and social transfer. This is absolutely unacceptable. The federal health spending share, initially at 50%, has dropped to 14%. Those listening will no doubt agree 36% represents a significant reduction.
Members across the way tell us “Look at the latest investments made by Ottawa; we have put money back in the health system and we are doing what we have to”. Finally, what they are saying is that all is well in the best of possible worlds.
Let us have a look at that. It is true that in the 1999-2000 budget, the federal government put $3.5 billion in a trust fund, the share of Quebec being $840 million. In the 2000-01 budget, the federal government did create a new trust fund of $2.5 billion and in September 2000, another trust fund of $1 billion for medical supplies.
While that money is useful for the Quebec health system, let us see what it truly represents. As a trade-off, the federal government insisted that five requirements be met. First, some funds are to be used for a specific purpose; this is what we call the “Ottawa knows best” attitude. Second, transfers made to provinces through these trust funds are a one-time payment, which means that there is no possibility of long term planning. As my colleague from Hochelaga—Maisonneuve mentioned, God knows that in the area of health there is a need to plan for the long term rather than to rely on band aid solutions. Third, once a province has spent all its share, it cannot get new funding from the federal government to maintain its spending level. Fourth, access to such funding to purchase supplies does not guarantee that Quebec will have the resources necessary to hire the personnel required to use these supplies. Fifth, as I said earlier, the creation of such funds makes budgetary planning more difficult.
This partial, incomplete, insufficient reinvestment by the federal government through trusts does not compensate at all the fiscal withdrawal practised by the federal government. I said that, from 1970 to 2000, Ottawa's share of expenditures decreased from 50% to 14%. Since 1994 only, the federal government's share of health expenditures decreased by 9 percentage points. Nine per cent in less than 10 years, that is completely unacceptable.
We are now getting into the political framework of all this. Only the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs denies the existence of this imbalance. He is not acting in good faith. The federal government cuts health and education transfers. But let us return to the subject of today's debate, health. The federal government comes as a saviour and says “Look, I am giving you a little bit of money. Be content, even if instead of robbing you of $100 million, I take $25 million from you”. It is completely unacceptable.
It is really sad to see the federal government make savage cuts in health services, and act as a saviour afterwards. Some hon. members across the way say “It figures, it is mean separatists who say that”. But that is not true.
I would like to remind the hon. members that, when he was the rotating president of Canada's Premiers' Conference, Gordon Campbell, the Premier of British Columbia, also said, and I quote from a letter he sent to the Prime Minister of Canada on February 12:
Notwithstanding our ongoing efforts to contain costs, it is clear to all premiers that existing federal transfers to province/territories do not provide a sustainable basis on which to provide an improved quality health care to Canadians.
This is not a separatist refrain. All the premiers says so, unanimously. The funding put into health care by Ottawa is not enough to maintain the quality level that Quebecers and Canadians have a right to expect.
When even the leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, Jean Charest, agrees with the position of the Quebec government—and God knows that Mr. Charest's requests are usually very minimal; my colleague talked about an invertebrate's requests, and I agree with that—something is wrong somewhere.
In conclusion, all this brings us to the kind of shenanigan represented by the Romanow Commission, which, ultimately, can only result in more support for the policy of the federal government. Let us not forget who Mr. Romanow is. He is the one who, only 20 years ago, plotted with the prime minister in the kitchens of the Chateau Laurier, in Ottawa, to patriate the constitution against the will of Quebec. You cannot trust a man who sees Canada as a centralized country, a man who will not give any chance to the provinces, particularly Quebec, and will deny them the right to develop a health care system that could be original and different.