Discussion · Government Orders
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Québécois
“The member used to be Quebec's finance minister, and he used to fight for more federal health money for Quebec. In the latest budget update, payments on the federal debt will grow much faster than health transfers to the provinces. I want him to tell us what he thinks about that.”
“Mr. Speaker, my colleague was once part of the Government of Quebec. He was a member of the Quebec National Assembly. He was even the finance minister, so he is very familiar with Quebec’s financial structure and the relationship with Canada in this respect. He was also part of a government that, like every government since the 1990s, fought to ensure that Quebec got its fair share of health transfers. The Government of Quebec advocated strenuously for that. On many occasions, by means of motions adopted unanimously in the Quebec National Assembly, he even criticized Ottawa for failing to pay its fair share. Here are some of the numbers in the economic update. I am not pulling these numbers out of thin air. Health transfers will rise from $54.7 billion in 2025‑26 to $67.5 billion in 2030‑31. Over that same period of time, interest payments on the public debt will climb from $54 billion to $80.9 billion. The rising cost of simply servicing the public debt is greater by far than growth in spending on something as important as health transfers. I would like my colleague to comment on that.”
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague was once part of the Government of Quebec. He was a member of the Quebec National Assembly. He was even the finance minister, so he is very familiar with Quebec’s financial structure and the relationship with Canada in this respect. He was also part of a government that, like every government since the 1990s, fought to ensure that Quebec got its fair share of health transfers. The Government of Quebec advocated strenuously for that. On many occasions, by means of motions adopted unanimously in the Quebec National Assembly, he even criticized Ottawa for failing to pay its fair share. Here are some of the numbers in the economic update. I am not pulling these numbers out of thin air. Health transfers will rise from $54.7 billion in 2025‑26 to $67.5 billion in 2030‑31. Over that same period of time, interest payments on the public debt will climb from $54 billion to $80.9 billion. The rising cost of simply servicing the public debt is greater by far than growth in spending on something as important as health transfers. I would like my colleague to comment on that.