Thank you.
CHA is the federation of provincial and territorial hospital and health organizations across Canada, representing over 900 hospitals and more than 4,700 health facilities covering acute, home, community, and long-term care.
Just for people from Nova Scotia, I want to remind you that our Nova Scotia member is the Nova Scotia Association of Health Organizations.
Our members are basically the publicly funded health system in Canada. I'd like to say that the CHA is a leader in developing and advocating for health policy solutions that meet the needs of Canadians. We're committed to a publicly funded health system that provides access to a continuum of comparable health services throughout Canada.
First, we have to say this because every day in the newspaper someone else is saying that our publicly funded health system is not sustainable: we must state categorically that, contrary to the myths that are circulating, the Canadian health system is sustainable. I'd like to use the latest OECD data. These data were produced recently and take into consideration the increases after the 2004 health accord.
What the data say is that Canada ranked ninth amongst OECD countries in total health spending—that is public and private combined—as a percentage of GDP. How many times have you read that we're second? We're ninth. If you look at public funding only, we're thirteenth. What this really shows is that Canada's health system is both sustainable and efficient and compares favourably with the OECD countries to which Canada is usually compared.
Privatizing more health costs by shifting them to individuals or their employers would not make these costs less onerous. We've said over and over again that cost shifting isn't cost saving. We already heard somebody in the previous session talk about the competitive advantage to Canadian businesses of having our health system. Given the high Canadian dollar, this is more important than ever.
Now to the issue of taxes, which I'd like to link to the federal spending power. There's so much talk about how important it is to cut taxes—and we're not saying that taxes ought not to be cut and we're not saying Canadians ought not to have some money to spend on their own—that we have to keep reminding ourselves that taxes are the price citizens of a country pay for the goods and services they collectively provide for themselves and each other. Federal tax revenue enables the federal government to help deliver services and fund programs for the health and social well-being of all Canadians.
While we know the delivery of health services is a provincial and territorial responsibility, the federal government has traditionally used its constitutional spending power to assert the Canada Health Act and to achieve pan-Canadian objectives. Any move to restrict the use of the federal spending power—and I'm not saying it should be used without provincial concurrence and agreement—in the future could have a negative, if not chilling, impact on future health programs like pharmacare, which is the program most provinces are asking for, by the way.
Let's talk about tax cuts and debt repayment. CHA is particularly interested in the question posed by the committee as to whether tax cuts should be broad-based or targeted to specific groups. Here, of course, the details are important. What we'd like to say is that socio-economic status is tied to health status. Therefore, if we improve the financial status of low-income individuals through a reduction in the tax rate at the lowest income bracket, this will benefit the health system as well as individuals at all income levels. I know the government has done this to some extent, but it can do it perhaps a little more at the lowest levels.
Also, CHA recognizes the need to pay down debt with surplus funds, but we would like to ensure—and I'm sure everyone else has told you the same thing—that some surplus money is allocated, before the end of the fiscal year, to special funds to achieve health and social purposes, rather than allocating the entire unplanned surplus to debt reduction. There needs to be some balance between tax cuts, paying down the surplus, and the need to invest in the infrastructure of this country. And we're not just talking about health infrastructure; in fact, we think it's important to invest to the determinants in health.
So what do Canadians want? Every time there's a poll, what Canadians are saying is what their number one issue is. Sometimes they're saying the environment now, and sometimes they're saying health, but health is still up there. Only 3% of respondents in most polls—and I don't quite know how Canadians have this split personality, but they do—say taxes are the most important issue facing Canadians. Remember that when Premier Charest announced that some of his increased equalization payments would go into tax relief, Quebeckers answered, no, we want them to go into health and education and social services. That's an interesting thing to keep remembering.
But I have to repeat that CHA is not arguing for higher taxes. We're only saying that taxes pay for needed services and that if there are tax cuts, we think they should be broad-based in a way that enhances economic growth, that they should help low-income Canadians, and that they have to improve health status.
Am I at five minutes now?