Hon. Rebecca Patterson: Minister, thank you very much. My question is in regard to your intergovernmental provincial and territorial role, specifically as it relates to the Canadian Armed Forces health system. As you’re probably aware, the fourteenth health system in Canada is actually a federal one. As we are moving forward, the Canadian Armed Forces have always consistently delivered some services but then purchased the rest at exponentially increased rates from the provinces, as well as a few provinces that require a substantial yearly dispensation in order to provide care to Canadians who actually pay taxes within those provinces.

As you know, since 2018, we’ve been trying to negotiate a reasonable rate with provinces, as the Canadian Armed Forces have been excluded from the Canada Health Act for all the reasons we understand.

As of February 7, the Prime Minister announced the one-time payments to the provinces via the Canada Health Transfer, now Bill C-46 before the Senate. He also announced the government’s intent to come to bilateral agreements with each province individually on health care funding. Since then, as we’ve heard, most if not all provinces have signed agreements with the federal government.

Minister, were the rates of reimbursements by the Department of National Defence to the provinces for the provision of health care to members of the Canadian Armed Forces part of those signed agreements?