Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of the people of Surrey Central to speak to Motion No. 468 brought forth by the Liberal member for Ottawa Centre. The motion calls on the government to recognize multiple chemical sensitivity, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia as illnesses that have the capacity to cause disability.
The Liberal member wants his government to recognize that Canadians suffering the disability aspects of these diseases require protection and a strong moral commitment to their well-being. My constituents and I find this amazing: here is a Liberal backbencher begging cabinet to learn to recognize Canadians suffering from these diseases.
Let us look at the three things the motion asks the Liberals to do: recognize these diseases as disabling diseases, give these victims protection, and make a strong moral commitment to the well-being of the victims.
Canadians know that the Liberals will do none of these things. The Liberals have cut $23 billion from our health care system since 1993. The government will not be providing any protection for Canadians who are sick. They have already seriously reduced such protections.
The government makes no moral commitments to Canadians who are sick. The Liberal backbench MPs were weeping openly in the House; they were crying and tears were coming out of their eyes when they voted not to compensate victims of federal government controlled tainted blood.
As I have said, the Liberals cut $23 billion from the health care system. Now we have a Liberal asking the House to try to force the government to do something about Canadians who are sick. The member has chosen only a few diseases for his motion. Some 20 other diseases could be added to the list by any Canadian. Why is the member so selective?
What about the organ donor transplant system? The government could have done very simple and basic things to immediately save the lives of Canadians waiting for organ transplants.
I ask the House to imagine a very small bedridden children crying. They need medical help. They could need a new kidney. Members of the government lazily drag their feet while little children, teenagers, young Canadians, mothers and fathers suffer waiting for a transplant or death.
We have a three tier health care system in Canada, courtesy of the Liberal government and courtesy of the defence minister. First, we have a waiting list system. Second, we have a system where those who are rich can go to the United States and get immediate treatment for whatever ails them. Third, we have a system which I call the sickness system.
There is no money from the government to protect the health of Canadians. The only time Canadians can try to contact our health care system is when they are already sick.
The Liberals should be ashamed. They owe Canadians an apology for creating this mess in our health care system in the first place. It is because of them that 6,000 nurses and 1,400 doctors left Canada last year alone. It is because of them that 200,000 Canadians are on waiting lists for various treatments. I could go on and on and on.
The government has lost control over the levels of pesticides found in our fruits and vegetables. About two dozen genetically engineered food products are already on our shelves. The Health Department has been stripped of the responsibility to monitor food safety. That responsibility has been given to the agriculture department, which is like a fox minding the chicken coop.
There is no money for these things in our health care system because the government has cut all the money it could. It has cut $23 billion from health and other services. I could go on and on. Yet we have the member for Ottawa Centre crying crocodile tears on the floor of the House with the motion. I hope the Environmental Illness Society is listening very carefully to the debate.
The government member is not fooling anyone while he pretends to do something for Canadians suffering from these diseases. Where can he get money for the undefined protection he wants to offer Canadians with these few specific diseases?
The Liberals already voted against compensating hepatitis C victims. They voted to keep high taxes and supported a $23 billion cut to the health care system. They supported a $30 billion grab by the government from the pension plans of public servants, RCMP and other public service employees.
Why can some of that $30 billion not be spent on the initiatives the hon. member is talking about? The Liberal government does not even recognize Canadians suffering from these diseases. His cabinet colleagues will not provide Canadians living with the challenges of disabling diseases protection and a strong moral commitment to their well-being. That is what he has admitted by submitting the motion. The motion is evidence that he has been unable to convince his own colleagues to support it.
I can prove that in the official opposition benches on this side of the House we have compassion and vision. We would not let the health minister close the file and abandon hepatitis C victims. We forced the Liberal health minister to reopen the file.
We on this side of the House also have vision. We would not have chosen to close the hepatitis C file because we know that Canadians who are compassionate people would want to help these innocent victims. These Canadians were sick from tainted blood given to them by the federal government that may even have obtained the blood from prisoners in Bill Clinton town.
The majority of Canadians would not want these people who are fighting for their lives to go through our court system. They are not strong enough. The Liberal government should be held accountable for not compensating them. We on this side of the House are ashamed of the Liberal government's health record.
The government is denying Canadians freedom to choose natural health products. Canadians sick with the diseases mentioned in the motion and others have met with our chief health critic many times over the years. Like all Canadians, they have been denied access to simple alternative remedies which would alleviate some of their pain and suffering.
Today the government will not be helping victims of multiple chemical sensitivity, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.
I regret that my remarks could not be more positive. I support any compassion, moral commitment or protection that any government including this one would provide to Canadians. It could do what the motion asks by returning at least $11.5 billion that it still refuses to restore to our health care system. Why has the government cut that money? The Liberals on the other side of the House could had the opportunity to restore it.