Madam Speaker, the question is very pertinent. The answers we have been given regarding these two departments is that this does not increase overall spending. On the other hand, if we look more closely and analyze budget trends since 1998, we see that over the past six years, there has been encroachment to the tune of an additional $15 billion. Let us look at what appears under the heading of development for this department.
The youth employment strategy has a budget of $315 million. That is under provincial jurisdiction. They have dipped into other budgets and come sprinkling that money here. My colleague calls it sprinkling, and she is right.
The Health Transition Fund has received $150 million. But if there is one thing that is under provincial and Quebec jurisdiction, health certainly is. The community action program for children and the prenatal nutrition program have received $99 million. The Canadian Health Information System has a group of people who come and sneak around in the provinces to find incompetent people, because jurisdiction belongs to the provinces and Quebec. The provinces have the expertise and the science, because they have been working on this for many years. This system alone has received $50 million more.
The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation received $2.5 billion. Funding of $260 millionhas been allocated toconnecting Canadians to information and knowledge, even though knowledge and education belong to the provinces. The initiative to strengthen communities andthe voluntary sector, which has grown in recent years expressly to try to fill in the gaps left by the government's squeezing of the provinces, has $40 million. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, another fancy toy, has received $240 million. That is still under Quebec and provincial jurisdiction.
The Canada Foundation for Innovation has received an injection of $200 million. Knowledge dissemination, although the institutions concerned with knowledge are within provincial jurisdiction, has received $96 million. The NURSE Fund—Nurses Using Research and Evaluation, under provincial jurisdiction as well, has been given $25 million. The canada research chairs program has received $900 million. The supporting communities partnership initiative, which provides help to the homeless, has received $753 million.
My hon. colleague's answer is that, in principle, there has been no increase. But when we look at it more closely the money being moved around is being used once again to impose additional constraints on provincial governments and Quebec. It is unacceptable. That is why we will vote against this bill.