Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning, members of the committee.
As the president of the Canadian Medical Association and a family physician from Saskatoon, I am pleased to address the finance committee during your pre-budget consultations.
Canada's physicians believe that innovative action taken now will ensure that we sustain a strong publicly funded and universal health care system. Our pre-budget submissions include three recommendations, focusing on health care infrastructure, health workforce, and electronic medical records, or EMRs. These initiatives are about improving health care for all Canadians. They fall within the jurisdiction of the federal government and recognize the government's current fiscal capacity. These proposals will kick-start a transformation of the health care system while creating more than 17,000 jobs that will ensure a competitive economy for the future.
The first area is infrastructure. The federal government should expand the Building Canada plan to include shovel-ready health facility construction projects, including ambulatory, acute, and continuing care facilities. The federal government has chosen not to invest Building Canada funds in health facilities. This is inexplicable. We need to better prepare our health system to deal with an aging population.
In addition, we must ensure sufficient capacity in our acute care facilities to meet surge demands such as epidemic or pandemic illnesses. Scarce long-term care facilities and home care services dictate that patients remain in hospital, delaying hospitals from performing elective surgeries and restricting the movement of other patients from the emergency room to acute care wards. Hallway nursing has become the norm in many hospitals stretched above 100% in patient capacity. In a country as wealthy as Canada, this situation is shameful. Roughly 25% to 30% of acute hospital care beds are occupied by patients who do not require hospital or medical care but rather 24-hour supervised care.
The $33 billion Building Canada plan could better support a smart economic recovery and the health needs of Canadians if health facilities were eligible for funding. A $1.5 billion federal investment in hospital and health facility construction will create 16,500 jobs over a two-year period, and 11,000 jobs in 2010 alone. This is an area where a small change to an existing federal stimulus measure could pay much greater dividends.
In terms of health information technology, the federal government should expand the two-year time-limited accelerated capital cost allowance for hardware costs related to health IT. Canada lags behind nearly every major industrialized country when it comes to health information technology. This is inexcusable. For patients, the impact of this underinvestment is longer wait times and an overall reduction in the quality of care.
The 100% capital cost allowance rate for computer hardware and systems software proposed in Budget 2009 is the type of initiative that will help make a difference on the front lines. For this initiative to provide the greatest benefit, the 100% rate should be expanded to include electronic medical records software and peripherals, and the whole initiative should be extended to five years.
Budget 2009 also pledged $500 million to support front-line development of EHRs and EMRs, but this money has not yet been delivered. Let me be clear: this delay is hurting patient care. The federal government must transfer these funds as soon as possible. Information technology investments will enhance the safety, quality, and efficiency of the health care system. They will also result in a significant positive contribution to Canada's economy and create thousands of sustainable knowledge-based jobs throughout Canada.
Finally, our third recommendation deals with the investment in health human resources. Canada does not have enough physicians, nurses, technicians or other health care professionals to provide the care patients need. This shortage puts the system under pressure, and the impact is being felt by patients across the country.
In the 2008 federal election, all three national parties made explicit promises to address HHR shortages. The federal government committed to fund 50 new residency training positions per year over four years and launch a program to repatriate Canadian physicians practising abroad. The government must keep this commitment.
The emerging economic recovery offers an excellent opportunity for the federal government to create a more patient-focused and sustainable health care system. Bolstering the Building Canada infrastructure plan to include health facilities will help providers to help patients. Enhancing EMR tax incentives and addressing health workforce shortages are also critical first steps in transforming our health care system so that it is truly patient focused.
Looking ahead, it will be important to continue to honour the financial transfers of the 2004 health care accord, including the annual 6% escalator, through to 2014. Past cuts to health care funding at all levels have had significant negative effects on patient care that continue to be felt to this day. Now is the time to begin thinking ahead to the fiscal needs of the system in the post-2014 era.
Thank you.