Madam Speaker, I have been trying to contain my feelings and save up for this opportunity. Now there is only 10 minutes to put over six months of concerns on the record.
I would like to focus on two areas pertaining to Health Canada. There are two pillars of health care in the country today.
The first pillar is our national health insurance system which is the envy of the world and a model that ensures access for all citizens on a universal basis to accessible, quality health care that is now facing serious decline and erosion.
The second pillar is our national health safety system which emerged out of the thalidomide crisis in the 1950s and has served Canadians well over the last several decades. It is also under serious threat from underfunding and lack of leadership by the government.
In both cases these pillars of medicare are crumbling. They are crumbling because of Liberal government neglect, lack of leadership by the present Minister of Health and a failure to ensure that some allocation of funds from this budgetary year, which is showing a $15 billion surplus, be allocated to those very important cornerstones of Canadian public policy.
We are not only dealing with a lack of adequate resources and a failure of the government to put a pittance of the $15 billion surplus toward these important areas, we are also dealing with a government that has failed to show leadership and provide national standards and national direction in two fundamental issues facing Canadians today.
The minister in his comments this evening was quick to point out with some pride the $21.1 billion contribution by the federal government following the September 11, 2000 accord for health care. However, the minister failed to point out that we are talking about $21.1 billion spread out over five years to cover health, education and social services. We are talking about a restoration of funds by the federal government to bring us up to 1994 levels which ensures that the federal government is involved to the tune of 15%, a long way from the 50:50 division that existed in the past for medicare.
Not only is the government failing to ensure our medicare model is sustained and supported, it is contributing to the erosion of that system and allowing, through its passive response and inaction, the slide toward privatization and yes, two tier health care.
The minister this evening stood in the House and tried to suggest he was making great progress by announcing a performance report, which would come into effect in the year 2002, and a citizens council on quality health care. These are two ideas which we will not sneeze at. They are important contributions to the debate, but they do not address the need for action. They do not address the concerns raised by the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions when this organization pointed out the government promised, with the September accord, to deal with the nursing shortage.
The government promised to deal with the drug pricing problems. It promised to deal with home care, and there has been no action. It has failed to address the Canadian Nurses Association recommendation for some contribution toward a recruitment strategy to deal with the crisis that is looming for all Canadians and the fact that at this rate we are in all likelihood going to face a shortage of 113,000 nurses by the year 2011.
The government has failed to deal with the suggestions from the Canadian Health Care Association that called upon the government in March of this year to allocate significant new resources to ensure we dealt with the shortfall of health care professionals and help provide the kind of quality care Canadians needed and deserved.
The government has not deal with the recommendations of the Canadian Medical Association that presented to the government a comprehensive document entitled “Looking at the Future of Health, Health Care and Medicine”.
The government has not dealt with the serious problems facing Canadians in terms of accessing necessary medications. It has not dealt with the recent report in March of this year by the Canadian Institute for Health Information which pointed out that almost six million Canadians had inadequate insurance for prescription drugs, or that 10% of the population had no drug insurance at all and another 10% were under insured.
The minister has not dealt with the concerns that are at the root of our erosion of medicare and will not commit to fulfilling promises made long ago to have a national home care plan, a national pharmacare plan and a major reform at the primary care level.
We need resources now to ensure that we can sustain medicare and reform it in terms of the community based preventative health care model we are talking about.
The second pillar pertains to health protection. We raised serious questions about mad cow disease in the House this week. The answer from the minister was appalling and needs to be addressed.
I would like to point out that on April 4, we asked questions of Health Canada officials pertaining to mad cow disease. Specifically, I asked if it was possible that deer and elk killed on our highways were slaughtered, rendered and entered into the feed that went to live animals? Dr. André Gravel said there was a remote chance. I also asked if it was possible, under present regulations, for cow blood to actually get into the feed that went to live animals. Dr. Gravel said yes.
The minister appeared before the health committee on April 26 and pretended or claimed that he knew nothing about that and said that they were taking all necessary precautions. Yesterday in the House, the minister stood and said to all Canadians that Canada was BSE free and that they were taking all precautions.
That is not the case. The minister has not put all the facts before the Canadian public. He is not taking the necessary precautionary steps to ensure Canadians are protected from the very serious threat of mad cow disease or, if I can refer also to issues raised previously, mercury in fish, or salmonella poisoning or the uncertainty around genetically modified organisms in our food supply today.
The government has hacked and slashed our health protection branch starting in 1997 under the present Minister of Health. It has not fully restored our scientific capacity. It has not ensured that we have independent research. It has not taken steps to protect Canadians in all instances in terms of our food supply, the drugs Canadians need or any other area for that matter.
I raise all this not to engage in fearmongering as the government is so wont to classify it. I raise it because if we do not take steps now to deal with these threats we will pay a price down the road. We will pay a price in terms of human health and in terms of our agricultural industry. This is about protecting our farmers and the health of consumers. It is about trying to convince the government to act now before it is too late.
It is reprehensible for the Minister of Health to stand whenever he is posed a question and suggest that the opposition does not know what it is talking about, that it does not have all the facts and that everything is just A-okay. We know from many reports, especially the 3,000 page report just released by the minister's own departmental officials, about the problems of BSE and the potential threat of mad cow disease.
This is a serious, comprehensive study which suggests we do not know the incubation period for transmission of the pathogen and do not know the source of the problem. We do not know that cow's blood, gelatine or other animal products which are put into feed and then fed to live animals will not transmit the disease to human beings.
We are asking the government to look at this serious issue, take all precautionary steps and ensure we have regulations in place that protect Canadians at all costs. We are asking the minister to look beyond the inadequate advice he is getting from his own departmental officials and look to the world, to the European Union and to other countries that are now realizing the importance of taking all necessary steps to protect the food supply. We must ensure the health of Canadians is not threatened.
The two pillars of Canada's health care system, universal health insurance and our nationally acclaimed health safety system, have held the country in good stead. They have ensured Canadians have access to quality care and have protected Canadians against the worst threats in terms of tainted food, problematic drugs or unsafe water.
Surely that is the most basic thing the government can do. Surely this is the time and the opportunity for the government to invest a portion, just a portion, of the $15 billion surplus into quality health care and into the health, well-being and future of our citizens.