Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Surrey North.
I am pleased to take part in the debate on the motion which calls on the Minister of Finance to increase the Canada health and social transfers by $1.5 billion and to forgo the $1.5 billion increase to federal grants and contributions in this year's federal budget. It is important to say that we do not suggest slashing all federal grants and contributions, only that we forgo the increase contained in this year's budget.
The government must listen to the people. Health care is on the minds of all Canadians. How many times have we heard that health care is the number one issue? I want to concentrate on the state of health care in the province of Manitoba and my riding of Dauphin—Swan River.
Canadians must not forget that we are talking about the mess our health care system is in because of what the Liberal government did in 1993. We must not forget that it was the Liberal government that slashed $25 billion from the health and social transfer when it first came to power. It is ironic that the Liberal government wants to fix the health care system, yet it was the same Liberal government that created the problem.
Today federal cash transfers cover just 10 cents on the dollar. In 1997 federal dollars covered 19 cents on each dollar spent on health care. In fact by 2003-04 the Liberal government will have slashed out of the health and social transfer a total of $35 billion. Let me paint a picture of how this $25 billion reduction when the Liberals first came to power affected Manitoba and my riding of Dauphin—Swan River.
The first thing which occurred was that it forced the province to look at other ways of cutting its costs. When the money does not come from the feds, obviously it does not have the money to spend. People got fired; they lost their jobs. People received less service. Quite a negative situation was created and all the people of Manitoba were very upset. Beds closed and hospital services were reduced.
The province did not know what to do. It reorganized the whole system. It cut out all the existing boards, put them into huge new boards and then had the audacity to make political appointments to those boards, which did not do our former Tory government in Manitoba any good.
The whole issue of health care helped the current NDP government get into power. Health care of all things. That is because it was very important in the minds of all Manitobans and certainly was important to the residents of my riding of Dauphin—Swan River.
I spent a lot of time working on the health care issue. Being a municipal leader at that time I had lots of town hall meetings. I organized a provincial meeting of municipalities and the aboriginal community so they could sit down and discuss what the issues were and try to get the provincial government to deal with all the shortcomings that people had to deal with. Obviously nothing happened other than that we created a lot of criticism. The province did not really move in that direction. The problems still exist today.
At this time I would like to read a letter that I received from the Regional Health Authorities of Manitoba, Council of Chairs. This group collectively represents all the health authorities in the province of Manitoba and wrote me this letter:
The Council of Chairs and Manitoba's Regional Health Authorities work together to ensure that all Manitoba's residents have the access they need to high quality health services.
As part of our commitment to ensuring access to needed healthcare services, the Regional Health Authorities of Manitoba is a member of the Canadian Healthcare Association (CHA), the national federation of provincial and territorial hospital and health associations. Through its provincial and territorial members, the CHA federation represents over 1,000 organizations covering the broad continuum of care. These organizations employ approximately one million healthcare providers and serve Canadians across the country. They are governed by trustees who act in the public interest. CHA's mission is to improve the delivery of health services in Canada through policy development, advocacy and leadership. The provincial and territorial members of the CHA federation are committed to ensuring that all Canadians have access to comparable healthcare services wherever they live.
Every day, members of RHAM see the serious effects that cuts in federal transfers are having on our national healthcare system. The significant decline of public confidence in our health care system is compelling evidence that Canadians feel the system will not be there for them and their families when they need it. Federal/provincial/territorial co-operation to build a truly accessible, integrated client-centred continuum of care is essential to restore the confidence of all Canadians in our healthcare system.
Provincial and territorial members of CHA federation believe that the federal government must act to ensure access to comparable health services for all Canadians regardless of where they live. The CHA brief presented to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance recommended that the federal budget focus on health care by:
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Raising the cash floor of the Canada Health and Social Transfer by $2.5 billion immediately.
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Applying a growth factor of the cash component of the CHST.
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Adding $1 billion to launch a national home and community care program to improve access to the broader continuum of care.
It is essential that, as our healthcare system adapts to change, the devolution of resources away from hospitals must not imperil access to the needed healthcare services that they have traditionally provided.
Health reform must include investment in and augmentation of all parts of the continuum of care as we work toward an integrated, client-centred continuum of care. Adequate, sustainable federal funding and federal/provincial/territorial co-operation are both essential for this to happen.
Today we have heard members say that throwing money at the health care system is not the issue and perhaps not the solution. But the reality is that the money taken out of the system back in 1993 caused the problem we have today. Therefore money is one of the solutions. No doubt we all agree that people need to sit down and talk and work collectively to look at all the options, including the options being expressed in the Alberta legislature at this time.
It is ironic that people do pay for their health care. There are lots of services. In fact the CHA indicated there are many medically necessary services in Canada that must be paid for out of pocket by the people who require them. A recent report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information noted the shift from public to private spending for health care in Canada which has been going on for years is steadily increasing past the 70:30 ratio. The OECD standard is 75:25. This passive privatization of our health care system is a reality of health care today in Canada and not just a possibility of the future. It has worrisome implications for access to needed health care services for some people.
The current problem that we are experiencing is because of the $25 billion reduction by the Liberal government back in 1993 when it came to power. Government members have to recognize and accept that fact. It is time to put more money back into the health care system. Canadians deserve it.