Mr. Speaker, I want to make a novel suggestion to the finance minister and it is one that has proved its worth in the past and I am sure it will work today.
I remember when I was going to elementary school during World War II and they had what was called war saving certificates. You brought 25 cents to school whenever you could afford it and they put a 25 cent stamp in your book. When you had $4 worth of stamps you tucked them away and in a certain period of time you got $5 back. A lot of the kids right across this country bought war saving certificates throughout World War II and they felt they were helping Canada.
I am going to suggest to the finance minister today that we use the same system for young people across the country, elementary and high school age, and for older people as well if they wish to buy back Canada certificates.
When I say buy back Canada certificates I am thinking of the debt that we have with foreign countries. In order to cut down the debt that we owe abroad, these buy back Canada certificates can be applied to the national debt to pay off foreign countries. Grandmothers and grandfathers can buy a $20, $50 or $100 buy back Canada certificate and give it to a youngster for his or her birthday or whatever. Any Canadian can invest in them.
In other words, it will go the year round. It is not just a certain period when you buy savings bonds. It will go the whole year. Let them buy these and it will instil in every young Canadian, every child, an attitude of Canadianism. "I am a Canadian citizen. I am contributing to this country. I am buying back Canada. I am buying back Canada's debt from foreign countries." They are looking to their future. They are building their financial future.
I think it would catch on and it would make every Canadian a part of a Canadian solution. It would help every Canadian contribute toward the national debt, bring down the deficit and feel that they are part of the action. In this way we will be helping senior citizens who are in need because their pensions can still come through.
I had a lady phone me this morning from Deep River who was very concerned about her pension because she knew this discussion was going on in the House today. I told her I would bring up that item on her behalf. She is the type of senior citizen who did not have a chance to have a contributory pension during her lifetime and worked hard. Those are the people we have to be thinking about at this time.
Medicine in this country is for everybody, not just the sick. We should be looking after ourselves through preventive medicine. I went on for years not looking after myself. I worked 15 and 16 hours a day, travelled all weekend, seven days of the week on this job. I never paid any attention to the fact that my father and his brother had heart problems and that some uncles on my mother's side of the family had heart problems. When I left the farm I kept on eating in the same manner I had been when I was working actively every day at physical work.
As a result I ran into problems. The good medical care of this country helped put me back on my feet after a triple bypass operation, after a triple vessel cleaning. The doctors and nurses were wonderful. We have outstanding medical care in this country and we have to support these people.
How can we support medicare? By looking after our own health, by looking after our own diet. It is not only after we have had an operation that we should look after our diet. It is up to every Canadian from the youngest to the oldest. By looking after our own health and putting some discipline into our every day life can be preventive medicine. Every one of us should be paying attention to that.
At a Heart and Stroke Foundation dinner on the weekend I paid tribute to Dr. Wilbert Keon who is the head of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and Director General at the Civic Hospital in Ottawa. This man was born in a small community just across the Ottawa River and up a bit from Petawawa where I live. He spent years in medicine. He dedicated his training to becoming a heart specialist and he did.
However, after Dr. Keon received his training at Ottawa University, he received help from Canadians so he could become a great heart specialist. He did not take off to the United States where he could demand the biggest buck going. He did not head off for Britain or some other country to make big money. He stayed right here in the Ottawa Valley and contributed to Canada. He is probably the top heart surgeon in this nation right now. He has trained many others. A top heart surgeon at a hospital in Edmonton trained under Dr. Keon here in Ottawa.
This is the kind of loyalty that Canada needs from professionals today, people who are going to stay here and put their life and soul into their work the way Dr. Keon did. To me that is the mark of a great Canadian. We need more like him. The staff around him is so oriented to thinking of the family.
People think the National Defence Medical Centre in Ottawa is only there for national defence personnel. Canadians who are in the trade business, Canadians who are diplomats, every Canadian soldier has the right to go there for their operations and they do. However, the operations for the Heart Institute take place at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute at the Civic Hospital. They do the work and send the patients back for post-operative care. Those people are wonderful.
We sometimes get very down. We cut this program or that program. There are other ways of cutting programs. I mentioned one tonight, preventive medicine, when talking about looking after ourselves better than we do. Diets are not just for people who have had problems. They are for people who are still healthy, to keep them healthy and to keep them out of the medical system.
People think that research and development is something that is very expensive. They cannot see any immediate returns from it so they get upset and say it is a waste of money.
I wish to say a few words about Crown corporations. Atomic Energy of Canada Limited is one of my favourites and I talk about it often in this House.
The Canadian public has invested $4.7 billion in Atomic Energy of Canada Limited since 1952. But do you know what the return is on its research? A recent Ernst & Young report stated that the return to the Canadian taxpayers was over $23 billion. That is a good investment. If you could get that return on every investment you made it would be great.
I was part of the legislative committee that steered Bill C-13 through this House and through the committee system. It dealt with the sale of Nordion International. Nordion provides radioisotopes to hundreds of hospitals across this country. We had 90 per cent of the world's market captured. Today what has happened? The previous government in 1989 sold Nordion International to a private concern. Now it is in a big dispute over the contract because AECL says it cannot provide the radioisotopes for the price the contract provided and the other company wants AECL to live up to the contract. Today we are in a position where hospitals in this country may end up with a shortage of radioisotopes.
I am going to leave it there because it is a subject I could speak on for the next hour. However, I wanted to highlight that radioisotopes today are becoming a very serious issue. Research and development on the medical side is becoming a serious issue and we have to invest if we want that four and fivefold return on R and D in this country. It has to happen.