The Liberals spent $500 million on health care out of $300 billion of total spending. That is 15¢ out of $100.
My colleague says that 80% of the money came from the federal government. Of course it dit; the federal government has the most money. It holds the purse strings. There is a lot of Quebeckers' and Canadians' money in that purse, but the services that the federal government has to offer are more limited compared to the provinces and Quebec.
The provinces and Quebec have also been squeezed by the public debt crisis caused by the federal government in the 1990s which left them with very little financial wiggle room. That is what we call the fiscal imbalance. Yves Séguin, a loyal Liberal federalist, explained that Ottawa had all the money but Quebec had all the responsibilities. Everybody understands that.
Everybody thinks the fiscal imbalance started in 2003, but it dates back to 1867. When the Fathers of Confederation gave birth to the Canadian Constitution, they created the fiscal imbalance. Anyway, a bunch of fathers giving birth to something was hardly going to work.