Thanks very much, Chair.
It's interesting. Through you, Chair, I would never, ever suppose to know what is inside Mr. Julian's head. It fascinates me to no end that he would suppose to know what the member for Carleton thinks—that he doesn't think pharmacare should exist or 600 people a year should die or anything like that. That's utter nonsense.
If you want to talk about the numbers of people dying, I mentioned people not being able to access the system for which this NDP-Liberal coalition government promised 7,500 doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners. We all know that's the purview of the provincial governments, but they promised it nonetheless. There were 17,000 to 30,000 people—because not all provinces and territories reported the deaths—who died every year because they couldn't access practitioners and/or services.
We have a system that is on the brink of collapse, and Canadians should appropriately question whether to trust the NDP-Liberal coalition to create another system. It is quite fascinating to me to suggest that we need this national system simply to protect the NDP-Liberal costly coalition.
Everybody in Canada knows that is the only reason this piece of legislation has reached the floor of the House of Commons. Everybody in Canada knows that the coalition is what has caused pharmacare to come to the floor of the House of Commons. Mr. Julian might say this is his greatest crowning achievement and the most important thing since Tommy Douglas created medicare and all those things, but what we know is that Canadians want a functioning health care system first and foremost. That's the counter to his argument.
Conservatives, on behalf of Canadians, are mounting a specific and robust opposition to what the costly coalition has provided Canadians over the last nine years—a doubling of rent, a doubling of mortgages, the fastest interest rate increases in 40 years and the greatest amount added to Canada's debt in the entire history of the country—and to say we should entrust them with very specific and other far-reaching bills is, in my mind, hogwash.
Going back to talking about the autonomy of physicians, on behalf of Canadians, through you, Chair; I don't want to say something disparaging, but I wish I could share Dr. Powlowski's and Dr. Hanley's ability to forgo a rigorous scientific examination of what the government has done already in the past and say we should simply trust them. Of course, they're part of the government. They're part of the costly coalition. It doesn't matter how much I like them; they're still a part of it.
If you want to be, in French, a béni-oui-oui and suggest that everything is good and shake your head yes, you can continue to do that. That is the prerogative of members of Parliament, but when we know.... If there's no nefarious purpose, why would this particular paragraph, under “Principles”, suggest that “The Minister is to consider the following principles”, and this is what they can do? This is the power that the minister has specifically asked to be outlined in this bill.
Of course, we have a system that's not perfect. I understand that. Do mistakes happen? Yes. I've already admitted that they happen. There are times when things are not appropriate. However, that being said, having a government agency interfere with the self-governing autonomy of, for instance, physicians in this country.... Who would want to practise medicine here?
Think, “Don't worry. You can trust the government.” What's the Ronald Reagan saying? He said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.” I just don't buy that.
People who really want their freedom and the ability to practise in the manner in which they have been trained, in which they continue to have their continuing medical education updated on a regular basis, for them to have that curtailed, perhaps.... I'm sure Mr. Julian is down there saying: “Oh, this is a tinfoil hat idea, of course; why would the government want to do that?”
Well, why would you put it in here? If you're not going to give the minister that type of power, then why would you do that? That would be.... Any self-regulated profession that would agree to that.... To me, this is the writing on the wall to say, “Guess what? You don't have the ability to regulate yourselves and therefore you should just trust the government to look after you. Don't worry yourself over that. The government will be more than happy to take care of your every want and need.” This is exactly what we hear from this NDP-Liberal costly coalition every single day, who say, “Don't worry. We're going to build more houses. We'll just invest some money.” What happens? They build fewer houses.
This is the classic for me: Don't worry, because in their platform in 2021, the costly coalition said they were going to invest $4.5 billion in the Canada mental health transfer. How is that going for you? How many dollars have been invested in mental health through the Canada mental health transfer? It's a very simple answer, because the answer is zero. It's zero. They are very good at making lots of announcements and taking lots of pictures and saying, “Look at what we are going to do for you.” You know what they end up doing? Making things worse. It's worse than nothing; it's making things worse. How can they possibly know that there's a housing crisis, which again is not the responsibility of the federal government, and then go on and say they're going to spend billions of dollars and build more houses, and then build less? It's nonsensical. It's beyond belief.
Our colleague from the NDP, part of the costly coalition, suggests that this is a filibuster. This is a serious and significant defence of Canadian principles that somebody has to save. Mr. Julian would simply love for us just to go on and say, “Just pass it. Just go ahead. No problem. We don't need any debate. We don't need any witnesses. The costly coalition knows best.” Again, that overriding and overarching principle is exactly what underscores my fear around this proposed paragraph 4(c) in suggesting that the autonomy for Canada's frontline health care providers is going to be interfered with by a federal government, which I think is the absolute travesty.
It's interesting. My colleagues talked about patients, that this is going to be about the primacy of patients. There's nothing in here. It does mention the “well-being of Canadians”, but it doesn't mention that there's going to be a patient ombudsperson. It doesn't mention that patients being part of the decision-making is in there. There's none of that wording, which we also heard significant testimony about, suggesting that there should be an ombud related to patient affairs and that patients should be part of the decision-making in going forward.
Not only did this bill not use Canada's two leading experts in pharmacare, both of whom had the ability to testify but were not asked to have input on the bill before it was created; they didn't ask any patients to be a part of it either. That cry has been going out for a very long time. There's no mention here of a patient ombud to allow patients to be part of that decision-making.
Do I trust this government? No. Do I have a distrust of most governments? Not in the sense that I don't believe that they have some good things in their mind or good intentions, but do I trust in their ability to act on them and make them reality? The answer there, of course, is a resounding no, because we see that through the examples that I've been able to provide here.
For that reason, I would implore my colleagues to support this amendment on behalf Canada's excellent and highly trained health care practitioners who exist in the system now.
Thank you, Chair.