Madam Chair, it is important to distinguish between global new funding for health care and transfers to the provinces since that is so fundamental to our ability to sustain a national system. It is important for the minister to acknowledge the fact that according to her own records and provincial analyses of her departmental budget, only $2.5 billion is being allocated as new money to the provinces for the year 2003-04.
We have to understand this whole debate. When the minister talks about this huge amount of 34-plus billion dollars going to health care, Canadians know that is a camouflage. We are here today to try to get the facts about what the government is actually spending in terms of new dollars on health care. Let the record show that for the year 2003-04 there is $2.5 billion going to the provinces as new money. If the minister wants to challenge those figures, she certainly is welcome to.
Let me ask her specifically a question that I tried to raise at the finance committee. I assumed I would get a straightforward answer on this question but failed to do so. Let me put it to the health minister.
What is the value of the cash transfer to the provinces today? What is the percentage share of the federal government in terms of financing our health care system? I would like a percentage calculation based on cash transfers to the provinces, not tax points, not equalization, strictly cash transfers.
I ask this question because it is important for the future of our health care system. It is the glue that holds our system together. I raise it because, as Roy Romanow and others have said time and again, what is important is the actual transfer of cash to the provinces. I want to quote from his report where he said:
While a tax transfer theoretically should provide stability and predictability, the actual history of tax transfers for health indicates they are quickly ignored and discounted by the jurisdictions that receive them. In addition, there is no guarantee that the revenue generated from tax points will be used for health care. Finally, and most importantly, however, tax point transfers eliminate any possibility of the federal government facilitating future expectations or expansions of medicare or helping to safeguard the fundamental principles underpinning the system.
My question is what is the role at the financial level of the federal government in funding our health care system? What is the actual amount of the cash transfer and the percentage involvement by the federal government?