Madam Speaker, I would like to begin by telling you that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Broadview—Greenwood.
This motion should be rejected. Although there is much in what was said by the hon. member for New Brunswick Southwest with which I agree, the motion is fundamentally flawed. The government is doing the very thing he is calling upon us to do by his motion today.
It is obvious that the status quo, the current situation is unacceptable. One can see the problems that exist everywhere: waiting lists, overcrowded emergency rooms, shortages of doctors and particularly certain specialists, and shortages of nurses.
It is also obvious that just investing more money will not solve these problems. Major changes in our ways of providing health care services are also necessary.
This is evidenced, as the hon. member for Eglinton—Lawrence mentioned, by the fact that certain provinces are not using some of the money given to them for health by the federal government.
Why? As Quebec Minister of Finance Bernard Landry explained a few days ago, it will take more than just money to face the problems in our health care system. This issue also involves management and organization.
We need two things if we are to deal with the issues in our health care system, if we are to save it, as the hon. member proposes, and if we are to improve the quality and access to services within the principles of the Canada Health Act. Those two things are: first, a long term plan on how to improve the way we deliver services to ensure timely access to quality care; and second, long term financing.
As the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance have said, if that long term financing requires additional money from the Government of Canada, we will be there to do our part to support that long term plan.
I will first deal with the plan. The House knows that in January I invited ministers of health to join me at the table so that we could get all the ministers on one side of the table and the problems on the other and start working toward solutions and find out what we have learned from best practices, the pilot projects that many of the provinces have themselves put in place and the innovations that the provinces themselves have undertaken.
I have made it clear that I will not go to that meeting with a fixed agenda or a settled approach. We are open to ideas and proposals that the provinces themselves will bring forward.
Let me now deal with money.
The hon. member for Richmond—Arthabaska suggested that the federal contribution to our health care system is 13 to 15 cents per dollar. That is not true. The hon. member is mistaken.
The reality is that the Government of Canada contributes on average more than 33 cents to every dollar of public spending on health every year in the country. I will refer to figures produced by the Canadian Institute for Health Information which demonstrate that in New Brunswick, for example, the Government of Canada contributes 55 cents of every public health dollar spent every year. In Nova Scotia it is 47 cents. In Prince Edward Island it is 64 cents. In Newfoundland it is 52 cents. In Quebec it is 47 cents and in Manitoba it is 48 cents. A national average of 33 cents on every dollar of public spending on health in Canada comes from this government.