Mr. Speaker, before I start on this very important issue, I just want to say that I could not help but notice what a great place the House of Commons is for our pages who come from all parts of the country to work and use up their first year of university education.
It is doubly exciting to know that one of those pages is with us today in the capacity of our Hansard concerns. It is wonderful to see them use the experience they gain as pages in the House to secure gainful employment in the House of Commons in other capacities. It is wonderful to see. It is a great improvement for our young people.
Speaking about young people and what we hope to give them in the future, we in the New Democratic Party hold health care as the primary issue. It is the core of what we do in most cases. It is the aspect of why people like Tommy Douglas, M. J. Coldwell and many others brought the issue to the forefront time and time again. I also wish to say that I will be splitting my time with the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle.
I had mentioned to the member for Vancouver Quadra that in Nova Scotia we have a critical shortage of doctors. We also have a critical shortage of nurses. There is a lack of dollars in what the federal government is transferring to the province. The provincial Conservative Party said during its last campaign that health care would not be reduced in any way, shape and form. Then it took $51 million from health care in the recent provincial budget.
That instils fear in the people in rural parts of my riding. Indeed that is the case in all of Atlantic Canada and in Nova Scotia especially. It instils fear in seniors, people of fixed incomes and single mothers with children. They wonder what will happen to them if they become seriously ill. Will the hospital remain open? Will there be an ambulance for them? Will they be able to afford the so-called extra user fees that are being charged?
Right now pharmacare for seniors in Nova Scotia has gone up another $160 per person. They simply cannot afford that. Any government, municipal, provincial or federal, should not balance its books on the backs of our most vulnerable people, our seniors. In many cases they are veterans who fought overseas and lost their brothers and sisters. Many of them raised their families during the depression, during war and during the post-war eras as well. It is absolutely unacceptable for governments to treat them that way in their golden years.
Our seniors are our knowledge base. We talk about a knowledge based economy. Our seniors have more history and more knowledge than we could ever care to think about. For governments to treat them as a cash cow on which to balance their books is simply unacceptable. There are many other avenues on which to balance the books without taking it out on our seniors, especially those in the beautiful province of Nova Scotia.
In terms of the hospitals right now, the stress within hospitals is phenomenal. In the news today the husband of a personal friend of mine required bypass surgery. He went to the hospital the other day and waited seven hours for his surgery. He was told at the last minute that his surgery had been cancelled and he would have to come back another day. This is the type of health care we are giving people in Nova Scotia. This man happens to be 63 years old.
Can we imagine the confidence the youth of the country would have in the health care system as they go through life after reading stories like this one? It is sometimes amazing and sometimes not very surprising at all why some people choose greener pastures in other parts of the world when they leave Canada. We in the House all say that Canada is the number one country in the world. One of the reasons for saying that is our health care system or our medicare system. It is absolutely unacceptable that governments at all levels in all provinces have been chipping away at that most basic and fundamental foundation by which we define ourselves as Canadians.
Other hon. members have mentioned that it is time for the Minister of Health, along with all premiers of other provinces, territorial leaders and aboriginal leaders, to get together in a health care summit to start defining the health care of the future.
In poll after poll the people of Canada have demanded through their tax dollars a publicly funded not for profit health care system. This is what Canadians want. This is what they are saying loud and clear. It is not very difficult. They are asking for a publicly funded not for profit health care system to be available for everybody from coast to coast to coast, no matter what their income and where they live. In the unlikely event that they require emergency health care, long term health care, or any health care under any circumstance, they want the service to be there for them. Right now many Canadians are losing trust and faith in the system. It is absolutely unacceptable that we as members of parliament, the leaders of the country, are saying to them that we really do not know the future of health care.
I always like to recite the story of when Tommy Douglas first introduced health care. He was hung in effigy by doctors in Saskatchewan. He was considered Satan. They asked how he could take away the right to earn dollars from medicine and socialize medicine, how he could possibly think like that.
Many New Democrat members of parliament were at the Canadian Medical Association awards dinner the year before last when Tommy Douglas was posthumously inducted to the Canadian Medical Association Hall of Fame. This just showed how ahead of the times he was. He personally fought battles so that the experiences he had would not happen to any child in the country. Our party and indeed all Canadians owe Mr. Douglas, Mr. Coldwell and many others in the movement a sincere debt of gratitude. Without them we probably would not be having this debate today and we would probably be into the American style right now.
It is unacceptable that many groups would love to see a two tier system. Insurance companies would love it. American multinational corporations would love it. Health care spending is anywhere from $40 billion to $90 billion. The figures bounce around a lot. Many private businesses would love to get their hands on that. The fact is that it would place a tremendous burden on those Canadians who cannot afford it, those Canadians who are on fixed incomes, and those Canadians who do not have the wherewithal to compete like that.
I should remind the House that according to the latest statistics from the United States 43 million Americans have no access to health care services, a land that calls itself the land of the great, the home of the brave, the land of great democracy. I would hate to be in the House years from now saying that three million Canadians have no access to health care. That would be a disgraceful thing to have to say.
It is why the New Democrats have brought forth this motion today, so we can stress to the public and fellow members of parliament from all parties the seriousness of this issue. We cannot allow health care to be eroded any more than it has now. We have to reinvest in health care and understand that it is the core public concern today. Everyone talks about health care.
For all governments at all levels to sit back and say that they will think about it and that they are gravely concerned about it is absolutely unacceptable. We have to put those words into action. Part of that action starts with this motion today.
I encourage all members of parliament to think deeply, to look into their hearts and talk to their constituents. See what they say about this motion and what they are saying about health care. I am sure they would find that the majority of people in their ridings agree with us.
Members themselves probably would agree as well, if they would get away from the politics of it and understand what defines us as Canadians. Members should forget about being Liberal, Canadian Alliance, Bloc Quebecois, Tory or New Democrat and think in terms of being fellow Canadians, and to know that no matter where they go in the country if they become ill they will have the best quality health care possible. People should not have to go into a hospital wondering whether they have enough money for a particular procedure. That would be unacceptable.
If I can do one thing in this House of Commons as a member of parliament for my own two children, it is to stand and fight for the number one concern of Canadians, which is health care. That is why I am standing today on this very important subject. I want my children to have the same access to health care that I had when I broke my leg, when I had my appendix out, when I had my tonsils out, when I fell out of a tree, landed on a fence and stayed for a week at the Vancouver children's hospital back in the 1960s.
I had access in all those instances. My parents had nine children and ran a group home for over 400 children. All those kids had access to health care as well. We have to be able to say that 20 or 30 years from now the children of tomorrow will have the same quality access I had when I was a young man.
I thank the House for the opportunity to speak to this very important motion. I literally beg all members of parliament from all parties to seriously consider this motion and to support the New Democrats on this one.