Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased on behalf of my colleagues in the New Democratic Party to be able to address a situation that is obviously at a very critical juncture in the history of the country.
We come to this debate with a serious, constructive motion to demand that the government stand and take action. We come to this debate with the understanding of so many Canadians that we are at a defining moment in our history when it comes to the number one priority facing Canadians: health care, access to quality health care across the country, and the preservation of a system that has held the country in good stead.
I am very pleased to be able to follow my leader, the leader of the New Democratic Party, who has been leading the fight in speaking out on behalf of Canadians and their number one concern. She is the only leader in the House, the only leader of a national political party who has decided to hold the government to account and to reflect the concerns of the Canadian public.
All my colleagues in the New Democratic Party have been fighting this issue day in and day out, week after week, month after month. It is an important issue. It is imperative for us to hold the government to account and to move it from its words and rhetoric to the point where it is prepared to have political courage and to take action.
We have a very constructive proposition for the government today. We hope the Minister of Health is listening carefully, as I see he is, and will convince his colleagues to support us in this request.
As my leader has done in her opening remarks, let me just briefly put the motion in some historical context. It will come as no surprise to the Minister of Health when I say again today that we have been pressuring the minister month after month to do something about bill 11.
I do not need to mention the fact that for seven months the Minister of Health has said he will act later. He said he will act when he gets the mail. He will act when the bill is unveiled. He will act when the bill is introduced. He will act after amendments, after regulations, and now he is saying after implementation.
What has been the action so far? Nothing, nil. I do not like to get carried away with the rhetoric in the House, but I have a difficult time not pointing out that this is a very shameful performance on the part of the Minister of Health, and I think he knows it.
Let us look at the response of the Minister of Health and his colleagues over the last number of months. We tried in the House to do something as simple as getting the government to acknowledge the existence of a number of legal opinions about how bill 11 violates the Canada Health Act and how it opens up NAFTA.
We could not even get the government to allow us to present those legal opinions. It did not even want to have a look at them. It did not even want to acknowledge their existence because it would put the government in the terrible position of having to recognize the facts forcing it to act now and act today.
We asked about the NAFTA implications, something that has been acknowledged as a very serious concern by credible organizations from one end of the country to the other. What did the Liberals do? They reversed themselves without a single legal opinion to back them up. All the while we have the reform alliance and the Tories cheering Ralph Klein on, supporting, aiding and abetting an agenda which opens up our health care system to a two tier American style approach.
By the inaction of the Minister of Health the government is letting the right wing forces send a message, make a difference, influence the public agenda. The passivity and inaction of the minister are destructive and dangerous in more ways than one when it comes to the future of the country and the future of national health care that held Canada in good stead.
What the Canadian Alliance and the Tories are suggesting is something that Canadians abhor, something that has been rejected time and time again. It is absolutely critical for the government to stand today to put an end to that kind of agenda, to counter it immediately and to do so by way of concerted and decisive action.
What does the minister continue to do? He continues to dodge and weave, wait and see, hide and seek. He is now saying after all the time he has had to study bill 11 that it complies with the Canada Health Act. He has given us no legal opinion. He has given no evidence for the sudden decision to claim there is no violation of the Canada Health Act.
I know I should not comment on how many Liberal members are in the House, but I hope the Minister of Health will get to all of them over the course of the day. I would like them to think about what they are doing and what is happening. The health minister has said private for profit hospitals do not violate the Canada Health Act. The legacy of the government will not be brave decisive action but explicit consent to a two tier American style health care system.
We used the words of the minister in the motion because we thought they were a significant indication of the wishes of Canadians. He says that he has grave reservations about investing public funds in private for profit facilities. Grave concerns do not stop health care from becoming a commodity to be bought and sold on the open market. Grave concerns do nothing to stop bill 11 from being proclaimed.
We know the minister has had a heck of a time trying to get his head around it and do something decisive over the past seven months, but we are here today saying that he now has a window of opportunity to act before bill 11 is actually proclaimed.
I have lots more to say and I think the best way to actually say what the motion is all about is to read a letter to the editor of the Globe and Mail of today by Don Schmidt. He wrote:
Canadians expect more from the federal government and Allan Rock—