Mr. Speaker, the opportunity to speak today is very crucial because it is sort of a celebration in terms of highlighting the responsibility of health to the federal government.
When I first came to the House and when debating the health issue back in our communities it was deemed a provincial jurisdiction. Today we are in the House of Commons debating health issues and the future of health care and the responsibility of the federal government. It is a major responsibility.
I call on my colleagues to continue to support it because if we look at health care and talk about the millions of budget allocations that are needed to replenish the cutbacks that we have faced in the hospitals, home care, elderly care, maternity wards and emergency wards, all these cutbacks we have realized over the years, with a surplus in sight we have an opportunity to create a health system in the new millennium. It will be a collective effort and the federal government has to play a major role in this.
I looked at health care issues specifically in my area. There is a recent statement I highlight because there are many concerns over the state of our health care.
In my riding I have a majority of aboriginal people who live in northern Saskatchewan where we border the Northwest Territories, the boreal forest and the barren grounds. Here is what it says about the state of our health.
It says we are compared to developing countries because diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis A do not exist or run rampant in developed countries.
My riding in northern Saskatchewan has the highest count of tuberculosis in the country. Imagine that in 1999. We will step into the year 2000 and my constituents have the highest rate of acquiring TB right now. Let us address that issue.
How do you address that issue? What causes TB? Here is another statement: “Increased suffering from developing country diseases such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease”. Diabetes is a major issue.
A few years ago I had an opportunity to work with a colleague of mine, an Inuit lady from Inukjuak. She was sharing stories about her people when we talked about our homes. Jokingly she said her people in northern Quebec were addicted to Coca-Cola.
The next day the Globe and Mail printed a headline saying they had to fly in a load of Coca-Cola to their communities because the winter supply to be delivered by ship could not make it before spring break-up. It was an emergency that they had to fly in sweetened soda pop. Our people's diets that are causing health problems are a major cause of concern.
What is the status of our environment, the state of our air and water, doing to our health? There is a study dealing with the toxicology of contaminants and its relationship to neurological disorders, reproductive effects, immunosuppression and cancer. PCBs were a part of that study.
A study of Inuit boys in Canada showed that their birth weights were a lot lower if the mothers had high levels of PCBs in their breast milk. These studies were conducted in our own neighbourhood. This was a very recent study and recently the federal government cut the study program on northern contaminants. This did not go beyond the water and air flows in the immediate Arctic region. This study needs to be expanded into the lower boreal forest as well, into the Cree and Dene regions.
Not only Inuit live off the traditional lands. Contaminants are impacting all our northern communities. This is a national program because the northern half of all provinces feel the impact of transboundary pollutants.
The industries in northern Alberta all spew their pollutants into northern Saskatchewan and carry on to northern Manitoba. The industries from Ontario and Quebec carry on to the Atlantic provinces and our northern regions. The Arctic polar regions get theirs from Europe and Asia. It is circulating all over the north and into our regions of Canada.
This is having an impact on our health. I have another health statistic which is a predominate number. Of our northern population 37% is under 15 years of age. Almost 50% of our population consists of children. They will be middle aged, seeking employment, housing and family support in their communities. They are not moving out. They are not moving away from the northern communities because that is home.
The development of the north is very crucial to this. We share this all the way from British Columbia to Labrador. That is where the intrajurisdictional issue of federal responsibility is very important.
Our situation in the north was highlighted by the United Nations recently. Examples of death rates, infant deaths, premature deaths, low birth rates, cancer, teen pregnancy and diabetes are of international concern. Canada is a major highlight.
We just talked about the social union and health accord gathering that took place. The aboriginal people were missing from there. They did not have a chance to be heard. Provincial jurisdictions are providing services to those communities but the federal responsibility is crucial. The medical services branch has a role with the treaty obligations with the treaty Indians.
Our communities are mixed. There are not only treaty obligations but there are non-treaty obligations. Then there are Metis obligations and the Inuit obligations. These obligations of health jurisdictions between the federal government and provincial governments is very crucial. I applaud our members today who have brought that responsibility back to the federal government.
Health is crucial. It needs national leadership. It needs provincial leadership. It needs community leadership. But the federal government has to be accountable because it inflicted the cutbacks in transfers to the provinces and inflicted the cutbacks in the environmental departments for analysis of the impacts of our health.
The other situation which is a major crisis in health in this jurisdiction is accessibility of doctors. In my community we have a group of doctors who came from South Africa because the jurisdiction of other countries cannot readily access employment in this country. But the South African doctors found employment and were readily recruited by our communities because we need a stable supply of doctors. Because of immigration they have to get their working visas authorized outside Canada.
I want to raise this in terms of a doctor's story. We want them in our clinics and in our hospitals. When they visit their families on holidays, let us say Easter or Christmas break, some of our immigration offices or embassies are closed during the holidays. They cannot get their working visas to come back into Canada to serve the clinics and serve the patients in our communities. It was an atrocity to see that. They had to backtrack and call people for five days before this specific process was completed.
On the whole issue of doctors and the training of doctors in terms of the north we need northern doctors. We need access to community health and good home care. Not everyone can come to the large urban centres for major care. So health care and budgeting of home care units throughout the country and to supply our remote and rural communities is in dire need.
I applaud the federal leadership that is taking place and the provinces which are committed to working together. Finally health care is on the federal agenda.