I hear from across the way that is a provincial responsibility. It is selective vision.
There is outdated equipment. We have 1.1 MRI per 100,000 people in Canada. Germany has 3.4 MRI per 100,000 people. Why should two countries that are so similar in terms of economic capabilities have such a difference? There is outdated equipment due to those cutbacks.
There has been a drop in the level of confidence in Canada. In 1993, 55% of Canadians considered the health care system excellent or very good. Today, in 1998, only 29% of Canadians find the system excellent or very good. Why? Waiting lists are an obvious problem for doctors, for patients and for nurses. What a shame.
According to a study done for the CMA by the Angus Reid group for the past three years, Canadians feel access to certain health care services has become more restricted.
Why would the federal government care about that? Why would the Liberal members care about that? It is because they themselves will get ill. They themselves will find themselves on waiting lists. They themselves will have grandparents or children left in the cold.
The provinces are asking for something that is fairly straightforward and fairly simple. They are asking for the federal government to never ever take funds from health care unilaterally. If there is a disagreement on the Canada Health Act, if there is a disagreement in the way the Canada Health Act is being implemented, they are asking that there be a dispute settlement mechanism, that there be a tribunal that would sit down and say “Here is one perspective. Here is another. What is good for the patient?”
I always try to put comments about health care in a personal vein and I will do that today. A patient wrote a letter to me not so long ago, a woman from Ontario who was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was told that she needed to have a procedure very quickly and then chemotherapy to follow. She was sent to the specialist. He did a biopsy and sure enough the cancer was worse than it was originally thought. The procedure needed to be done quickly. She was booked for surgery in two weeks and that was considered to be quite reasonable and normal. When the date came the surgery had to be put off. There were not enough nurses for the surgery. It was put off for another two weeks. When that day came, the surgery was done. Then her chemotherapy, which should have been started almost immediately, had to be put off for three months.
The fear, the concern, the worry. That is what the provinces are asking for. It is not for some political juggling match. It is simply to provide the care for that most important social program to that woman with breast cancer who had needs that were not met here in Canada.
I hear the comment about having the Reform Party admit that it wants two tier medicine. The Reform Party does not want two tier medicine. What we want is care for patients that is timely, that is available, that is modern and which keeps people healthy.
All throughout the world people are grappling with these problems. Most countries seem to put health care as the highest priority, not just in terms of hyperbole, not just in terms of rhetoric, but in terms of practicality.
The social union is moving positively toward that end. Does it have to happen in 30 days? I have listened to my colleagues say that is too quick. Then I say, set a Liberal date. Do not listen to a Reform date. Set a Liberal date. We will be happy to be able to say there is progress being made. But as of now the provinces are asking where the progress is. We will push hard for that progress to be made for one reason, for health care for Canadians, for the patients.