Dr. Charles Shaver proposes a simple, affordable solution for fixing the imbalance in health care in which the Quebec government has been violating the portability provision of the Canada Health Act. According to his brilliant proposal, a new category of "patients treated out-of-province" would be created without intruding on Quebec's jurisdiction over health care delivered to its residents within Quebec.
Although Dr. Charles Shaver points out that Quebecers have been treated as second-class citizens when they seek medical care in another province, people from other provinces are treated as second-class citizens when they seek education in Quebec because Quebec imposes higher tuition fees on out-of-province students. I propose that a new category of "students studying out-of-province" be created without intruding on Quebec's jurisdiction over education delivered to its residents within Quebec. The federal government would pay the difference in tuition fees between the out-of-province students and Quebecers directly to the educational institutions so that the students could avoid bureaucratic red tape.
Such a solution should be extended to cover all inter-provincial health care portability and education portability, not just for residents of Quebec. This way, all provincial governments would maintain constitutional jurisdiction over health care and education. At the same time, all Canadians would be provided with fully portable health care and fully portable education so that everyone would be treated with respect and dignity wherever he/she seeks medical care or education anywhere in Canada.
