Madam Speaker, in December of last year I asked the government why it had cancelled a program seven times that would have helped recognize foreign trained professionals. I would like to raise this question again tonight.
It is interesting to note that the Liberal government cut $25 billion from the health care system. Due to a complete lack of leadership from the Liberals, we have seen a perpetual state of dithering on allowing more professionally trained foreign individuals to practise in Canada.
Due to Liberal neglect, Canada's health care system faces a looming personnel shortage. The numbers of doctors, nurses, technicians and other practitioners are increasingly inadequate to meet our aging population. This significant problem demands a solution. The Liberals love creating problems but it seems that only a Conservative government will be able to fix them.
An important step toward solving the looming health care resource crisis would be a more fair and efficient system of foreign credential recognition. Everyone has known this for years, yet the Liberals have done nothing about it, and continue to do nothing about it. It took a backbench MP to finally introduce a bill to change the status quo.
Two weeks ago I raised this issue in the House during adjournment proceedings. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance replied that the government was establishing a fund to reduce wait times, part of which would address the human resource crisis.
Since the Liberals took power, wait times have increased drastically and personnel shortages have loomed even larger. The Liberals should apologize to Canadians for allowing the system to deteriorate to a point where such measures are necessary.
What the hon. member neglected to mention two weeks ago was that the trust fund would be nothing more than another Liberal slush fund masquerading as a public policy tool. Yet again the government has shown utter contempt for the well-being of Canadians by manipulating health policies to suit its own nefarious ends.
I would like to draw the attention of the House to paragraph 7(3) which states that the finance minister may pay money into the trust “at the times and in the manner that the Minister of Finance considers appropriate”. In other words, he could funnel any amount of money into this arm's length trust whenever he felt like it. This trust will not reduce wait times as much as it will increase the Liberals' ability to fudge budget numbers.
This bears a striking resemblance to the numerous foundations established by the government that end up being used as holding funds for unspent taxpayers' money. Even if the Liberals' intentions were honest, they are obviously unable to do what the fund was set up to do.
We need to train more foreign doctors. Its seems like a lot of money that the Liberals have committed, but it is money that will be spent over five years. We have to open our system to foreign trained professionals. Why is the Liberal government not doing that? It should apologize for the disaster which the health care system is in today.