Mr. Speaker, the member is quite right. Monday morning last in Chesterville, Ontario, I had occasion to speak to this subject in the presence of rural members of the government caucus. I said at that time that after becoming Minister of Health, travelling the country and looking at the situation on the ground, I came to the conclusion the real threat of two tier medicare in Canada was not so much between the rich and the poor but between the urban and the rural.
Access to services in rural areas is a major issue. The one-third of Canadians who live in rural Canada or in the more remote regions are demographically older, have poorer health status, are more subject to accidents and injuries, and yet have less access to the whole range of services from ambulances to emergency rooms to diagnostic equipment and family physicians, let alone specialists.
The purpose of my appearance in Chesterville with members of the rural caucus of the government was to receive their report on recommendations for action the Government of Canada could take to address some of these issues. I accepted all their recommendations and I undertook to implement those that were within my sphere of authority as federal minister.
At the same time I announced $130 million for concrete steps which I will believe will help. First, there is a program devoted to pilot projects for rural and community health with money set aside specifically for innovative practices to be funded in rural communities and looking at new ways to overcome issues of access to services, whether it is training physicians and nurses or paying them differently.
Second, investing in telemedicine would enable us to take advantage of new technology to overcome the challenge of distance. In the member's riding and in rural Canada generally I believe telemedicine holds real promise for helping us overcome some of the problems the member has identified.