Mr. Speaker, I too am happy to have the opportunity to put some comments on the record to perhaps challenge some of the misinformation and myths that have been coming from the opposite side.
I want to start by saying that I came to a revelation this morning when I picked up the Toronto Star and read an article by Thomas Walkom. Thomas is an editorial writer, an opinion writer for the Star . I worked across the hall from him when I was at Queen's Park.
I generally find him to be philosophically on the side of the left wing in the entire country, certainly provincially. While I very seldom agreed with Mr. Walkom, I always respected his writing ability and his ability to see through what the issue was all about.
I want to share some thoughts. We talk about the victims, the deal, that it is not good enough, that we should spend more and if we spend too much it will hurt health care. We talk about all these different issues on all sides of the House.
However I think Thomas Walkom really summed up what this debate and this issue are all about aside from crass politics and manipulation of some tragic victims. He says “Most of all, it is about what societies are willing to do for all of those, not just hepatitis C victims, who suffer crippling illnesses”. He goes on to say “If negligence alone is to be the criterion then federal health minister Allan Rock was on solid ground when he talked of limiting compensation to those victims infected between 1986 and 1990”.
The theory, Thomas says, albeit it developed with the advantages of 20:20 hindsight, was that Canada erred in not following the U.S. lead, which I hear my U.S. supportive friends in the Reform Party talking about all the time. He goes on to say that once Canada did start to test the liability ended.
I think this is really the debate that has to happen. Thomas Walkom says that what we should be talking about is a comprehensive public, no-fault, universal disability insurance helping those who for whatever reason find themselves levelled by any debilitating illness.
That does not necessarily mean that we would simply support that. If we think about the debate of that issue I suggest the costs of a complete no-fault health insurance disability plan would be quite astronomical, but we should debate it. It should be a public debate, no question. I hear members opposite saying that the negotiations that are about to take place over this issue should be held in public. The member for York—South Weston says we should have it with the public. That is a terrific idea because then we would know what people agreed to.
This motion by the NDP is a good motion and. It says that the House urge the government to press for the invitation of representatives of the hepatitis C society to be a part of the negotiations. They would be witnesses. That would be interesting if we had impartial witnesses at the last round of negotiations. We would know what the Minister of Health for the province of Quebec said at the table. We would know what the minister of health, the Hon. Elizabeth Witmer, said. I have great respect for her. I worked closely with her in the Ontario legislature. We were both critics of the NDP government which was a rather easy job to do. I got to know Elizabeth and I have great respect for her.
If it was on television, all the better. We would know what was being said. What do we have here? We have a deal that would never have surfaced if not for the leadership of the federal Minister of Health. The former minister of health for the province of Ontario, the hon. Jim Wilson, said see you in court. That was his response.
What do members think Reform Party members would offer in terms of compensation? Imagine their bleeding hearts? I do not even know if they would go so far as to say see you in court. They would say let 'em eat cake. That is exactly what they would say. We know what Reformers would offer as compassion if they had the responsibility to government this place. It would be nothing. The hypocrisy that we have seen over this issue has no bounds. It is absolutely astounding.
We hear from members opposite that we should listen to the people. I have talked to residents. I have had a couple of calls. I had about 400 calls on the seal hunt issue, but I have had a couple of calls on this issue from very seriously concerned people, some of them ill, some of them family members of people who are ill, some of them just trying to understand. When I return those calls they do understand the impact of a universal no-fault health care plan that would simply provide compensation for all victims.
I made a statement in the House a few months ago about Kyle Martin. Kyle Martin was a five year old boy whose father took him to the emergency at Credit Valley hospital. Kyle had a fever. He was very uncomfortable. They spent several hours in emergency until finally a doctor got around to seeing them.
Members opposite would just blame the federal government for something like that, but in our province they have made choices. In fact, they have just recognized that they had made damaging choices because they poured more money back into the health care system for emergencies.
If we want a universal health care system, let me tell members what would happen. Kyle was diagnosed. Once they got to look at him after several hours, they realized they had a serious crisis on their hands. They ordered a helicopter to take him to the sick children's hospital. Twenty-four hours later Kyle Martin was dead.
I talked to his father. Some members in this House, and I thank them publicly, have contributed to the Kyle Martin fund to help a doctor at the sick children's hospital in his research into streptococcus and what causes it and how it can be treated.
Here is the message to the Martin family. What do you say to a mother and father who have lost their five year old son? Do we turn around and simply say federal taxpayers are going to compensate them for that loss? Or do we say they have access to the courts, a right to sue and should sue the hospital and the attending physician and whomever their lawyers advise them to sue? A court case will occur, a decision will be rendered, and if they win there is insurance in place to cover that kind of thing.
What we want to do is wipe out the court system entirely in this country and go to a broad based no-fault system. I do not know who is going to pay for that. I do not know how we are going to fund it and make it sustainable.
I think this motion should be supported and nobody needed to whip me to vote for the Minister of Health. Let me say that to the member for York South—Weston. I wish I had another 10 minutes to talk about that particular problem and how he likes to play politics with victims and games he plays like this.
The fact is nobody needed to whip me. I support the Minister of Health in this. He is the only politician who has shown true leadership from the start in this country. Now that the provinces have come to their senses, we will go back and cut a deal that will be fair for all concerned.