Mr. Speaker, it is with mixed feelings that I take part in this debate. In fact, I am outraged because the government is putting in the same bill a promise made by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien in February 2003, more than a year ago, to invest $2 billion in health care. That was supposed to be part of what the federal government was going to do for health care. So, in this bill, we have, lumped together, the $2 billion that was promised more than a year ago, and an extended equalization formula that the provinces do not want.
The government has taken a promise, something owed us and made it conditional on the extension of the equalization formula, which will do Quebec out of $723 million this year.
In other words, with respect to the $2 billion, of which Quebec's share is $472 million, members are forced to say “yes”, but if they say yes to the first measure, they have to say yes to the second. Yes, we want $472 million more for health care, but we also agree to get $723 million less in equalization.
This bill is a sham. My colleague from Joliette called it a stunt. We could have a contest to find which synonym best describes the kind of deceit practised by this government.
At first, the Bloc Quebecois wanted to have this bill split so that we could say yes to the proposed health transfer. It is not enough, but it was promised a year ago, so let us have this money before the election. But we are not even sure that it will happen before the election; it could also happen after the election. They will talk about it some more. They have been talking about it for a year, and they will talk about it some more.
Should we say yes to that? The problem is that, if we do, we will have to say yes to the second part of the bill, with which we totally disagree. That is why my colleague asked that the bill be split. And, amazingly enough, our Liberal colleagues, who form the majority and do whatever they want, decided to vote against splitting the bill. They voted in favour of this sham, to try to pull a fast one on us.
We think that Quebeckers will understand the fact that we are opposed to this bill. We will not try to filibuster this legislation, or to take any other action. We are not stupid. We want the money allocated for health to be paid to Quebec and the other provinces as quickly as possible: an amount of $472 million is better than nothing.
However, we want to stress the fact that, by allocating this money, the government is not giving what was anticipated for 2003-04 alone, which is $723 million. For that reason, we will oppose this legislation.
Moreover, we are rather upset at this supposedly new, supposedly transparent and supposedly democratic government. This is some democracy.
The equalization formula must absolutely be changed. Under the act that was passed, the current equalization formula was to end in March 2004. That formula was adopted for a period of five years, from 1999 to 2004. Normally—and this was done, since negotiations were undertaken—the provinces want major changes, so that things are more predictable, because right now the amounts are not predictable, and so that the process is more fair and also more transparent, because there are 3,000 different elements that come into play, thus making it difficult to anticipate the results and to verify them. So, a major reform is in order.
Some work was done. However, instead of using its energy to quickly negotiate and reach an agreement with the provinces before the deadline, this so-called new government came up with a bill that extends the program for an additional year. The former government did that, but the new government maintained it and made it worse. The Liberals want us to agree to extend the old equalization formula for one year.
I will just mention two figures. If we extend it for a year, we can be sure that there will be a difference of $1.4 billion between the forecasts made by Quebec and those made by the federal government. The numbers are there. An amount of $1.4 billion is indicated in the estimates for Quebec. The equalization formula must be changed and it could be changed quickly.
Unfortunately, this new old government has not followed up on the provinces' desire for change, at a time when there is a surplus. We must not forget that when the new Minister of Finance was sworn in, he immediately copied his predecessor, now Prime Minister, in saying, “There will not be a surplus this year; things are tight. If we want to allocate $2 billion to health, there must be changes and cuts”. However, the federal government, in large part, has spent twice as much as Quebec and Ontario. We will not get into that.
How much is the current surplus? It is $7 billion, and we know that another $7 billion of surplus money from previous years has already been put into various foundations. The government would have us believe that it is not able to negotiate a new equalization agreement at this time. This makes no sense.
For these reasons, we will vote against this bill. We cannot help saying that what they are doing is unacceptable. No one knows what will happen to the $7 billion surplus. Will it once again be used to pay down the debt without anyone deciding? What will be done with this $7 billion is not decided democratically. Half of that money comes from the surplus in the employment insurance fund, once again, paid by businesses and workers. Will it go into foundations and then come back in the form of presents come election time? No one knows.
The Bloc Quebecois will vote against Bill C-18.
In conclusion, I will read a paragraph that struck a chord with me from an article by Michel David in yesterday's Le Devoir . It reads:
Someone should perhaps have suggested that federal finance minister Ralph Goodale might wait a few days before announcing the downward revision to the equalization figures. If he wanted to put the provinces' backs up right before the Vancouver meeting, he could not have found a better way. What we heard from the first ministers was a carbon copy of how each of these meetings ended during the Chrétien era.
So here we have this independent writer's corroboration of our own conclusion: this new government is just a rehash of the old one, with faults that are becoming more and more visible with each passing day.
We are opposed to this bill. We want the money for health, but we want to make it clear that the refusal to negotiate equalization, when the government has the money, is an outrage. It has a serious impact on the future, not only for the people of Quebec, but also for those in the Atlantic provinces.