Mr. Speaker, Canada already has a private health care system. If we get our teeth fixed by a dentist, that is private. We pay for it out of our hip pockets. If we go to a chiropractor or to many other treatments, they are private.
In my province of British Columbia, the provincial NDP government sends needy health care patients to the United States for treatment. A guy I used to work with needed cancer treatment but the cancer clinic was full. The NDP government not only paid for his treatment in Bellingham, it gave him vouchers to travel back and forth. When he had to stay overnight, the it paid for him to travel to the United States and paid for his overnight stay in a private American health care clinic to receive treatment.
For anyone to say that there is no private health care involvement in the system is incorrect. There is, absolutely. That is why we need to discuss what that involvement should be and how we can ensure that all Canadians have access in a timely way to the health care they need.