Mr. Speaker, reports have it that the former NDP premier of Saskatchewan, Roy Romanow, has been named to head a national commission on medicare. Details will be made known in a short time by the health minister.
As members can imagine, my colleagues and I in the NDP know and value the commitment of Roy Romanow to medicare. He has devoted his life to serving in a province that is the birthplace of medicare and is committed to carrying on the legacy of Tommy Douglas. His appointment today is most welcome and timely.
The challenges facing medicare are serious and threatening and must be faced head on. Rising drug costs, nurse shortages, waiting lists for diagnostic tests, creeping privatization, gaps in community care and shortfalls in public financing are worrisome, but most of all, trade deals, like the GATS, strike at the very heart of our universal public health system and threaten a future for medicare.
We trust this new commission will address these threats to medicare and we wish Roy Romanow the very best.