Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the wisdom of my colleague, the member for Winnipeg—Transcona, who has been involved in these issues for some 20 years. He probably knows better than anyone else the struggle in Canada for a universal, comprehensive health care system.
It is absolutely clear that Monique Bégin will go down in history as the last person in the federal government to be seen fighting for medicare. She was very clear in her recent comments about what is required. She pointed to the fact that “erosion of medicare is the slow concealed process which suddenly leads to landslides and collapses. Is that what we want?”. Obviously we do not want that.
We have a universal health care system in the country that must be defended against all pressures including our own worst enemy, the Liberal government, which has overseen the dismantling of the system through steadfast cutbacks over the years, has willingly allowed the private sector to invade the health care sector and, as my colleague for Winnipeg—Transcona has said, is prepared to allow free-floating discussions at the WTO around health care services to be up for grabs at the table in the international sphere. Those are two obvious threats to health care in the country.
The third threat, which I hinted at earlier, is the dismantling of our health protection system. We have in the country a tradition of a tough regulatory approach to ensure that the food we eat, the drugs we need, the water we drink and the medical devices we need to use are safe beyond a reasonable doubt. We have operated in the country on the basis of a “do no harm” principle. If there is a concern or a doubt then we ensure that we do not allow that product to be consumed by Canadians until we know the long term health consequences.
We know from events of the past week that we have been inundated with all kinds of concerns from groups and individuals about the flood of genetically modified foods on the market around which there has been no scientific investigation or research from the federal government. Members also know that we have had a number of instances where our government inspectors are so under-resourced and short staffed that they are not able to address very serious situations around toxins and poisonings in our food supply. It is an area that cries out for government leadership.
We are desperately hoping that the government will address both areas of health care: the preservation of a universal, publicly administered health insured system and the strongest possible national food safety and health protection system imaginable.