My name is Kaaren Neufeld. I am the president-elect of the Canadian Nurses Association. The CNA represents some 129,000 registered nurses throughout the country. Thank you for this opportunity and for having my remarks tabled and appended as minutes.
The CNA believes that the tax system is a powerful tool, and given its importance, CNA recommends changes to the tax system to support the health of Canadians and a healthy economy, in order to sustain the claim made in the October 2007 Speech from the Throne.
In particular, CNA sees the opportunity to encourage actions to modernize health sector infrastructure and to promote innovation in health delivery. From CNA's perspective, a strong health sector has created a strong foundation for Canada's current economic prosperity. By comparison, take U.S.-based Starbucks, which spends more on health care insurance for its employees than it spends on the raw materials to make its coffee.
CNA's brief is organized around four areas for action. Taken together, they strengthen the economy, we believe, and improve timely access to quality health services. These four areas are information and communication technology, skill enhancement training, children's health, and obesity.
Today I will speak to the first two recommendations.
Information and communication technology offers solutions to issues of access to health services. ICT investment will bring the health sector into the 21st century and help make the health system competitive, effective, and efficient. Take, for example, the emergency department at the Scarborough general hospital, which is currently piloting self-serve kiosks, similar to those you see in airports, to register patients with minor ailments, so that the triage nurse is free to deal with critically ill patients.
We also know that two-thirds of deaths in Canada result from chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and mental illness. Canadians with chronic illness are supported by community-based services that occur in their home, in clinics, and in seniors' centres. We know that people with chronic illness do not get the follow-up tests and control that they need for their disease. An electronic system would allow health professionals like the 3,000 oncology nurses across Canada to assess and monitor progress and to generate electronic reminders for patient checkups.
Canadians who live outside urban centres are often required to travel great distances to get health services or to greet and meet specialists. Applications like Telehealth enable service provision 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in every urban, rural, and remote location throughout Canada.
Many of Alberta's 25,000 registered nurses work in rural settings. Community-based nurses throughout Canada use laptops to access test results and clinical guidelines. Providing a GST rebate to registered nurses or their employers for investing in laptop computers and cellphones would cost a mere $96 per nurse. The investment would mean better access to services by reducing visits to emergency rooms and specialist physicians and by averting the need to fly from communities. Throughout the tax system the federal government can create a business environment that encourages efficiencies, so to promote the purchase of ICT tools, CNA recommends that corporations that invest in information and communication technology for the health system receive a 100% rebate of the goods and services tax charged on ICT purchases.
The second issue I would like to address is providing effective economic leadership by supporting skills enhancement training. The Speech from the Throne six weeks ago promised that the government would support Canadian researchers and innovators in developing new ideas and bringing them to the marketplace. CNA applauds this commitment, and we believe that enhancing the skills and knowledge of the workforce is a key element for delivering on this commitment. CNA recommends that the tax system be changed so that Canadian workers and their employees will be rewarded for investing in skills development by receiving a credit against their EI contribution.
Canada has a well-educated and highly skilled workforce. However, consider these facts:
The Conference Board of Canada reports that 42% of Canadians between the ages of 16 and 65 have literacy levels too low to allow them to be fully competent in most jobs within our economy. In 1996, employers invested $842 per employee in training, while in 2006 they invested only $699. CNA recommends that the tax system be changed to encourage investment in skills enhancement training. CNA sees the employment insurance program as a vehicle to achieve this. The purpose of Canada's employment insurance program is to maintain a stable workforce; the EI program currently has a multi-billion-dollar surplus. Employees and employers both pay payroll taxes for EI.
In conclusion, CNA notes that in the previous budget the government made positive steps to promote a healthy environment and a prosperous economy.
Given Canada's leadership role in today's knowledge-intensive global economy, CNA recommends tax changes that will enhance the productivity of all Canadians, in particular, the health sector and its employees.
Thank you.