Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the minister for her speech and for her participation in this debate.
I know that this debate cannot be reduced to mere fiscal considerations. However, I wonder if the minister agrees with me that, since 1997—and I am ready to table a document if the House so wishes—eight out of ten provinces have set up working groups to study the transformations that will occur in the various health care systems.
There is no longer one single health care system. There are ten of them. The various working groups that submitted their reports to their respective governments all pointed out that health care spending would increase by 5% over the next few years.
I was looking at the rate of increase of federal government revenues, which is 6.4% a year.
Therefore, I would like to ask the minister—and I will have the opportunity to elaborate on that when I make my speech later on—if she can tell us tonight whether she intends to be the ally of all premiers, from Bernard Lord to Mr. Landry to Mr. Campbell in British Columbia, to use her voice in cabinet to argue in favour of increasing transfers to the provinces so they can respond to this pressure on their respective systems to the tune of 5% a year.
Can she tell us tonight whether she is going to use her voice in cabinet to support the provinces' demands for more funding?