Mr. Speaker, according to Premier Grimes, Newfoundland and Labrador will receive only about $200 million of the $13.5 billion being transferred to the provinces over the next three years for health care. Because the transfers are shared on a per capita basis, our province always receives a relatively small amount. That problem is compounded by an aging and shrinking population spread over a huge piece of geography.
The Prime Minister has admitted that the per capita funding system does not provide adequate funding for Canada's three large but sparsely populated northern territories. Therefore, there should also be an equalization factor built into our share of federal health care transfers, a factor that takes into account the realities of our geography and demography. Otherwise a small province such as Newfoundland and Labrador will always be playing catchup to the rest of the nation.