Madam Speaker, I want to inform you that I will be sharing my time with my esteemed colleague from Thérèse-De Blainville, who will deliver a most interesting speech, as usual.
The Bloc Québécois's motion today is meant to offer a huge thank you to workers, most of whom are women, on the front lines in long-term care homes, in hospitals, and all across our health care system.
These people are working under very difficult and unsafe conditions. They can be told at the last minute that they need to work a second shift because of a lack of staff. They are always directly exposed to COVID-19 and must deal with never knowing if they have been infected or have infected their families. They are living in uncertainty and have been making a huge daily sacrifice for several months. We tip our hat to them and thank them from the bottom of our hearts. They matter a lot.
The current pandemic, a crisis that affects us all, has shown just how fragile our health system has become after decades of underfunding by Ottawa. No matter the party in power, the approach has been to disengage and provide less and less funding, which has weakened the health system and led to the lack of resources we are facing, including at long-term care homes. This pretty much explains the tragic situations that have occurred during this pandemic.
This fall, the CHSLD Saint-Eusèbe, in downtown Joliette, also experienced significant challenges. We want to commend and thank the front-line workers who look after patients.
I have no words to describe the government's arrogant and contemptuous attitude in the House towards the provinces and Quebec. This government is telling us that it is our fault that things are going badly, and that we did not do our part. This government claims that it could have done better and continues with its centralizing agenda by attempting to take over provincial responsibilities and powers under the pretext that it can do better.
All of this is happening while the federal government is failing to properly fulfill its role and responsibilities. One such example is vaccine procurement, which I think has been a disaster compared to other countries. We will have the proof in the weeks and months to come. Another example is border control, which was very poorly managed at the beginning of the pandemic.
Yesterday the government delivered its economic update, and clearly it will continue to interfere in provincial jurisdictions, while refusing to provide additional funding for health care. I expected the economic update to finally get health transfers back on track. I would have liked to see some acknowledgement that Ottawa has been shirking its responsibilities and not contributing for the past 25 years.
All we got was a promise of $1 billion for long-term care centres, or roughly one four-hundredth of the deficit, which is up to $382 billion.
If only this government would let us apply our standards. In her speech last week during the committee of the whole meeting, the Minister of Health insisted that her government was going to impose Canada-wide standards, as if what is missing from long-term care and health care is more standards.
During the first wave of COVID-19 in the spring, the military was called in to help in the long-term care facilities. According to reports from the Canadian Armed Forces, it was not a lack of rules and standards that caused the crisis in the long-term care facilities, but rather a lack of resources.
Why was there a lack of resources? Because the health care system had been undermined. Why was the health care system undermined? Because the federal government has been saying for 25 years that it will not play its part. How will it tackle the deficit? By cutting health care funding, too bad. People will complain to the governments of Quebec and the provinces. It was Jean Chrétien who said that at a G7 meeting at the time. His counterparts said that they were going to impose austerity measures and that there were all kinds of demonstrators in front of their parliaments. Jean Chrétien told them that he did not have that problem, that he was cutting funding to the provinces and that people would demonstrate in front of the National Assembly and the legislative assemblies of the different provinces. He laughed about it, but they cut funding from essential services.
Originally and until the end of the 1970s, the agreement was that half of health spending would be funded by Ottawa. That was an entirely logical criterion. When taxpayers pay their taxes, they pay roughly half to Quebec and the provinces and the other half to Ottawa. After that, it is only normal that we share health funding fifty-fifty.
To deal with its deficit, Ottawa said it would no longer play its role. Its share has decreased to 21% or 22%. That is clearly not enough. As the fiscal capacity, the surplus or the flexibility are in this Parliament, Ottawa is using this flexibility to invest in programs that give it greater visibility. Ottawa is not listening to Canadians who say that health care is the priority and that they need funding for health care. No matter the party in power, Ottawa refuses. That is unacceptable and deplorable.
To add insult to injury, in yesterday's economic statement the government boasted that 80% of every $10 injected to get through the pandemic comes from the federal government. It is patting itself on the back for that.
The government fails to mention that all of that adds to the national debt and that taxpayers will be the ones who will eventually have to pay it back. The government also fails to mention, and I find this particularly insulting, that the exact opposite is true when it comes to health care. Ottawa is providing barely more than 20% of health care funding. It gives itself some wiggle room and then tells us to look at how well it is dealing with the pandemic. The wiggle room is here, and the needs are in the health care system. Our workers are doing miracles. They are living in very difficult conditions to try to deal with that and the government is taking a haughty attitude and saying that it will show the provinces the right thing to do because it knows all about this sort of thing. It is showing contempt for Quebec and the provinces. That is unacceptable and it needs to change.
I was expecting that to change in the economic update. Obviously, that was an unpleasant surprise. Perhaps it will change at the meeting with the provincial premiers, which was finally announced today and which will take place on December 10, just before the break. We will not be able to question the government about this meeting, but I hope that the government will get back on track.
Earlier this afternoon, Quebec's finance minister commented on yesterday's statement. Of course he said how disappointed he was. He thought it was unacceptable for Ottawa to impose standards on the provinces. It disrespects jurisdiction, and it has to change. The December 10 meeting is an opportunity. Let us hope it is not a missed opportunity, despite the Prime Minister's statement that he has already done quite a lot for health. He believes the provinces have adequate health funding. The Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs tweeted that all kinds of other subjects would be on the agenda. He is determined to downplay the importance of health funding.
Will Ottawa do what it usually does by lowering the bar and trying to divide the provinces? When the provinces are struggling financially, there are always some that give in for cheap. Ultimately, Quebec will be the only one asking for more money, and the health system will continue to be underfunded.
That needs to change now.