federal provincial transfer in 2014 result in the maintenance of 6% growth, as committed to by the current government, or in some other arrangement is not yet clear. In October of 2010 Maxine Bernier , a federal conservative MP and former Minister of Foreign Affairs said Ottawa should hand over authority for funding health care back to the provinces and allow them to fund health care solely on the basis of their own tax points, rather than cash transfers from the federal government. Do you believe the federal government should stick with its stated commitment to a 6% annual growth in cash transfers? Yes No, it should be more No, it should be less Loading ... Whether the proposition of Maxime Bernier last year is a serious part of the current federal government's negotiating position remains unanswered. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was quick to point out that Bernier does not speak for the federal government; however Bernier does say that small, limited government "would be the conservative thing to do". Bernier argued in a National Post editorial that "this is a recipe for permanent discord. The provinces act like special interest groups who would rather get money from the central government than increase their own taxes". If the constitutional position of the federal government is that health care is a provincial responsibility, it is easy to lay the major funding responsibility at the feet of the provinces through tax transfers, while reducing the federal cash for health transfers. If most