Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to stand and talk about this budget.
Because I am the health critic and because I am really keen on health, I looked forward to this budget. I must say that frankly, I looked forward to it because it would be a health reinvestment budget. In a non-partisan way, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me to stand and cheer my colleagues across the way. I honestly, truly hoped that I would be able to do that.
Because a politician can find negatives in anything, I am going to leave the negative comments relating to this budget to health care people who are not politicians.
The Liberals said they had an excuse for cutting health. The excuse was that there was an emergency, a deficit emergency, a money emergency. Many Canadians asked why the Liberals took a money emergency and made it into a medical emergency. That would arch over my questions to my Liberal colleagues.
Reformers say that this budget is a pay more and get less for health care budget. Members have heard that a lot. I hope they will hear it a lot more.
What is the Liberal record on health since the Liberals came to power in 1993? These facts are absolutely incontrovertible. In 1993 Canada was second in the world in spending on health care. As a per cent of GDP, Canada was number two. Today Canada is number five in the world. We have plunged from two to five as a per cent of GDP. That is the Liberal record.
These are not just numbers; these matter to the public. As a percentage in the 28 OECD countries, government spending on health of all the OECD countries, Canada is 23rd out of 28. We are so close to the bottom we are almost the anchor. We are told that in private health spending we have one tier publicly financed health in Canada. Where are we in terms of private spending since 1993 until now? We went from 22% to 30% in a short span of time. That is the Liberal legacy.
This is the big, big health reinvestment; budget increases federal support for health care. What will be the balanced result of that? The balance is pretty simple. For every $2 the Liberals have taken out of health care, they are going to put $1 back in. Most eighth graders would tell me that is not very good math.
Let us look at the reception of the budget from those who are not politicians, those who stand aside and look at this with no axe to grind, none. I have chosen three big groups.
The Canadian Medical Association said, “The patient is the health care system. Budget day, it was an emergency situation, just this close to life support. With the budget it has moved from emergence to urgent. It is still acutely ill,” says the president of the Canadian Medical Association, Dr. Hugh Scully. “This is a band-aid”.
Sharon Scholzberg-Gray, the president of the Canadian Health Care Association said, “This increased funding is a step in the right direction but it will not be enough to deal with a growing aging Canadian population. The amounts are not sufficient”. This is not a political statement. This is a statement by somebody who deals with the patient.
The Canadian Nurses Association expressed concern about the long term sustainability. “At the end of four more years,” said Mary Ellen Jeans, “we will be at $15 billion which was where we were three years ago”. She did not say when the Liberals took power we were at $18.8 billion for health care. She did not mention that but I will.
I would say the reception by non-politicians to this tremendous health care reinvestment budget is negative. Would my colleagues agree? Would my Liberal colleagues agree? The Liberals talk about this as getting all kinds of encouragement and enthusiasm from across the country. I do not think so.
I have never done this in the House before but I am going to take the position of Canadian doctors on the budget. They made a prebudget submission. Because I am a doctor I have hesitated to do this. Today I am going to present the CMA position, their prebudget submission on health care. I am going to list off the things that they said needed to be done. I am going to grade the Liberal government on the CMA's behalf.
The first thing concerned funding. The CMA said there had to be sustainable funding and asked for $2.5 billion per year now, to raise the floor from $12.5 billion to $15 billion, not where it was when they started but at least get started. They also asked for $3 billion over the next three years for the damage. They said please do not keep this CHST nonsense. Identify the health care funding out in the open so that we can all see it. What was the mark? I will be fair. It was a C-minus. The Liberals did only one of those three things.
The CMA asked for a complete tobacco policy. I give the Liberals a D for that because it was not even in the budget.
The CMA asked for every doctor to be treated fairly under the GST rules, in other words, to have the GST be zero rated. I give the Liberals an F.
The CMA wanted the RRSP limits raised. I give the Liberals an F.
The CMA wanted the non-taxable health benefits maintained. That was done; an A. They also wanted a national target for health research funding. Well there is a little bit of money for health research funding but no national target so I will give the Liberals a C.
That is a C-minus, D, F, F, A and C. The Liberals did not pass and would not get into medical school with this budget.
Mr. Speaker, I am sharing my time in case you did not realize that.
Who was totally missed in this budget? The 6,600 hepatitis C victims of tainted blood. Not one penny for the left out hepatitis C individuals.
I would like to make another little announcement today. It looks like we are going to have to go to Washington, U.S.A. to get justice for those victims. Next week that is exactly what the victims and I are doing. We are going to Washington to see if we cannot find proper care for them there.
There is not much in these speeches so let me draw a parallel for my medical colleagues who are in emergencies this afternoon. When hanging up 1,000 cc's of normal saline to look after the patient on that gurney today, this is what should be done with that 1,000 cc's. This will be the way to tell how the Liberals have treated health care funding in Canada. Pour 500 cc's of the 1,000 cc's into the dish. Then pull up with a great big syringe exactly 68 cc's and put it back in the 1,000 cc's. That is what is left for the patient lying in the emergency room. That 1,000 cc's of saline almost went down to half under the Liberal government. And the Liberals put in a little tiny bit with their injection syringe from this budget.
Health care was too important to be turned into an emergency because we had a deficit problem. There were so many other choices. There was the choice of business subsidies that could have been scrubbed. There was the choice of scrubbing all kinds of aid programs. So many wasteful things could have been scrubbed.
I am going to make one last prediction. The prediction is that just before the next election a wheelbarrow full of money will come out and that wheelbarrow full of money will be designed to do one thing: save the political hides of the Liberals.
This budget is a budget where every single Canadian will pay more and get less for health care. The taxpayer will pay $2,000 more in taxes and will get $1,500 less in health care. This budget could have been so much better. I am disappointed.