Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his fascinating speech.
Obviously, health care is an exclusive provincial jurisdiction, but there is something called the fiscal imbalance. We know that the most important responsibilities of a welfare state are incumbent on the provinces but that the revenue largely goes to Ottawa. That means funds must unconditionally be transferred to the provinces. During the debate, the Conservatives said that they wanted to respect provincial jurisdictions and stop interfering.
There is an expression known as “starve the beast”. That suggests that is what they are going to do. They seem to be hinting that they are going to cut our funding if Quebec does its own thing when it comes to health care. If the Conservatives should take power one day, will they commit to significantly increasing unconditional health transfers to the provinces and Quebec, as the premiers of the 10 provinces and three territories are calling for?