Mr. Speaker, the $3.3 billion could become much higher. It could be closer to $4 billion.
The information that was given to us from the auditor general is that there were overpayments. The cumulative overpayments for the years involved are $3.3 billion. Clearly that does not include the interest that would be earned on those moneys all those years by the federal government either by investment or by reduction in its debt. There is a value. Even taxpayers who overpay taxes will get it back with interest when they get their refund. Similarly if they have a shortfall in their instalments or whatever, they will have to pay interest. The differential would simply be the time value of money.
I understand the member would like to suggest it was the government's mismanagement, the government's error and therefore the government should just eat it. It was not the Government of Canada. It was an agency of the CCRA that had a computer problem. It did not deliberately do anything.
Each of the years was audited by the auditor general. The Government of Canada relies on the auditor general to safeguard, to protect, to ensure and to check that these things are correct.
The Government of Canada relies on the auditor general to opine on the correctness of the account. The Government of Canada relied on the auditor general. The auditor general did not see it. When the computer systems were being updated, a computer error was found. It has been corrected. It will not happen again.
To suggest that there was some malfeasance on behalf of the government is a bit of a stretch. There is a detrimental reliance not only by the federal government with regard to the auditor general's reports and assurances that there were no problems, there is also a detrimental reliance by the provinces because they received the money in good faith as well. The principle of detrimental reliance and who relied on whom is very important in the discussions.
With regard to the funding of health care, the 14%, the member is correct, it is 14% of cash. We have had this debate many times. The tax points are worth so many dollars. In fact the federal government is the sole funder of aboriginal health issues. The federal government is the sole funder of research and the health protection branch and all those other things. If we were to add these things in, it is over 40% of the funding of Canada's health care system.
I received charts during the cabinet briefing which show the components, the tax points, the aboriginal health issues and all of the other direct expenditures, including something as simple as the anti-smoking campaigns that the federal government has been funding for so many years. That is an investment in the health of Canadians.
The member should not misstate the facts by suggesting this is all the cash. If that is his position, perhaps he would agree that we should terminate the tax point arrangement, i.e., the taxing authority the federal government gave to the provinces. Let that revert to the federal government and the federal government will give them the cash.