Mr. Speaker, the motion before us this afternoon is:
The Minister shall table in the House of Commons, in September of each year commencing in the year 1998 and ending in the year 2003, a report assessing the adequacy of the cash portion of the total entitlement referred to in subsection (3) to sustain the principles of the Canada Health Act—
The member for Medicine Hat indicated that he and his caucus were opposing the motion because they believe that these kinds of programs should be delivered closer to the people, a point that was added to a few moments ago by the member for Calgary Southeast. The member for Medicine Hat said that otherwise there would be protesters on the lawns of the legislatures. That is not why the member for Winnipeg North Centre is introducing this motion this afternoon.
My adopted province is the province of Saskatchewan. Saskatchewanians feel very strongly about medicare. We feel it is our gift to this country. The CCF introduced medicare and funded it on its own back in 1962. It was then adopted as a national program by the Liberal Party under Prime Minister Pearson in 1967 and was funded by the federal government.
Under the Canada assistance program and established programs financing appropriate funds were delivered to ensure that we had a national quality health care program from coast to coast to coast.
What we are seeing, to our chagrin, in recent years is that the health care program is becoming more and more strained at the edges. To go back to the province of Saskatchewan, with the sharp reductions in federal funding to health care beginning in 1994 and onward, the Saskatchewan government has backfilled every cent that the feds have withdrawn from health care.
As previous members have pointed out, all that is being suggested now is that the cuts are not going to be as deep as were originally envisaged. The government is not actually putting more money in, it is just not taking as much out.
I said that we backfilled in Saskatchewan. The budget was tabled last week. Once again health tops the agenda in terms of the amount of money that is spent. It is now $1.7 billion in a province with just over one million people. It is a significant amount of money. It makes it very difficult for the province to do some of the other things that need to be done because this government is not living up to its financial obligations in this area and has not done so for several years.
I think there is a serious debate going on in this country whereby larger, wealthier provinces which do not have such a large percentage of their budget going to health care are going to begin, in effect, to thumb their noses at the carrot and stick approach—mostly the stick approach—taken by Ottawa. The carrots are getting increasingly smaller and the provinces will say that they will go it alone, that they will provide the kind of health care they think is appropriate.
That will be the end of any kind of national health care program in this country. We will be into a two-tier system, which is, I suspect, really why the Reform Party is opposing this motion today.
We have acknowledged and given credit where credit is due in this House. The government has set, over recent years, deficit targets to reduce and now eliminate the deficit in this country. I believe I am correct in saying that the government is also establishing debt reduction targets. We fail to see why it is hesitant to introduce a target for health care; to do an annual check-up on health care, if you will, to see how it is performing and what is required to ensure that this gift from Saskatchewan continues well into the next century throughout the country. There is not only a debt and deficit problem in this country, there is also a social deficit that we are very concerned about.
Medicare has been the declaration that all Canadians deserve quality health care, regardless of how much money they have. We have said consistently that a family's health should never have to depend on a family's wealth. That is the point we are trying to make here, except we will substitute province or territory for family. The wealth of a province or a territory should not depend on the health of the people who live in that province or territory.
In recent years the Liberal government has cut health care by almost $4 billion. It has opened the door to privatization, as I have suggested. It has indulged in restricted service and user fees that signal the arrival of a two-tier system: the best care for the rich and a lower quality of care for everybody else.
It has cut the promotion of good health, including programs to prevent domestic violence, to control the spread of AIDS and even to discourage smoking.
Three quarters of all health care costs are funded through medicare or other provincial plans. Many important services remain unavailable to those who do not have private insurance or who are not eligible for provincial or territorial programs.
The Canada Health Act requires provincial health plans to be universal, accessible, portable, comprehensive and publicly administered in order for them to receive federal funding.
Both the National Forum on Health and the Canadian Health Coalition have determined that the current $11 billion, which will increase to $12.5 billion, minimum payment to the provinces promised by the Liberals is simply not enough to maintain those principles.
Canadians know all of this. Canadians who were at the Liberal Party convention last weekend know this as well. That is why they are concerned about the direction or the lack of direction, the inability or the refusal of this government to set targets.
I submit that members opposite should be supporting this very reasonable proposal put forward by the member for Winnipeg North Centre.