Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to address the House during this supposed take note debate on the future of our health care system.
A recent Environics poll indicated that 80% of Canadians wanted significant reforms to our health care system. A debate of the surrounding issues is quite timely if there was a debate. If the system is going to change, Canadians want to be part of it.
The Canadian Alliance recently conducted its own health care review. We made clear our values on health care. Our policy declares our commitment to ensure that timely, quality and sustainable health care is available to every Canadian regardless of financial means. We will achieve this by placing the interests of the patients first. This is what we expect the government to do and what Canadians expect the government to do.
Unfortunately, the government was disappointingly quiet and unspecific in the recent throne speech when it came to health care issues. While Liberals may try to blame their lack of vision on something else like waiting for the Romanow report, the health care system gets worse every day.
More than anything, our health care system needs to know that there is substantial and sustainable funding from the federal government. We have seen the government shirk its funding responsibilities and then dangle funding carrots in front of the premiers like they are the ones who are solving the problem. Let us put an end to these charades and admit the federal government needs to carry its share of the burden.
While the Prime Minister is focusing on a spending legacy, the irony is that it will be this and the former finance minister's funding reductions in health, education and the military that will undoubtedly be their legacy. When it comes to the military, we believe that the existing funding has been exhausted. However, when it comes to health care, we believe there are still plenty of opportunities for reprioritization and reallocation of funding within the existing budgets before considering massive funding increases.
Only after all these options have been explored should we consider raising the tax burden of Canadians. Nonetheless, the health care system must be patient driven, not system driven. We have a responsibility to determine what Canadians want in their health care system and then find a responsible means to deliver it. It will be Canadians who determine what, if anything, is not covered. It will be Canadians, not politicians, who determine what should be funded.
Our job in the House and within government departments is to come up with a cost effective, sustainable plan to meet those demands. We all use the health care system from time to time. Some of us are lucky and do not require it often, if at all. Others like myself may have had one or two crises in their lives. Still, it is those who must rely on the system daily who need to be heard. They do not enjoy the benefit of good health. Health care is a necessity. This demand on our health care system and the growing dependence on medicare is guaranteed to increase. In fact, some conditions, like diabetes and heart disease, are expected to reach epidemic proportions as more and more Canadians take less and less responsibility for their own personal health.
On October 19 the Globe and Mail reported that Canada had more fat children than adults and that one-quarter of children aged two and three were clinically obese, meaning that one-third of their body weight was composed of fat. The article went on to say because children tended to become overweight and obese, it was widely predicted that rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease would soar. These problems and lifestyle choices will have to be considered and accounted for in the future of our health care system.
What will be the areas of increased demand and how are we preparing to meet them? Unfortunately, the Romanow commission and the Kirby report are more about ideas than about a plan so far.
While they have suggested some methods for achieving their goals, they both do not have concrete plans with exact costs, responsibilities and targets. This is something that has been missing in the past and I am afraid we may be following the same path again. I look forward to being proven wrong in this regard but I do not think I will be.
I have identified what I think the others should do but I would like to conclude with some comments on what the Canadian Alliance would do and what we would like to see.
Before I outline our plan I want to stress that we would ensure that a timely, quality and sustainable health care system is available to every Canadian regardless of financial means. Our health care system would be patient driven, not system driven. We would give Canadians the health care system that Canadians want. It is their choice.
We would modernize the Canada Health Act in light of the new technologies, priorities and techniques to ensure timeliness, quality and sustainability. We would end the roller-coaster cycle of funding for which the government has become famous. We would work with the provinces to ensure adequate, stable and transparent funding. This is essential in long term planning and preparations for future demands on the health care system.
While working to ensure that Canadians have equal and fair service no matter where they live, we are also committed to ensuring that the provinces have maximum flexibility to deal with innovations and unique service demands. The goals may be the same but the provinces require the flexibility to develop their own strategies to get there.
There is an ongoing debate of the role of the private sector in the public system. We cannot tie the hands of those tasked to deliver health care. We are confident, if given the freedoms to incorporate private involvement, the provinces under direction from their electorate will do so with proper safeguards in place. Let us not tie the hands of those we need to be creative and innovative in conquering the challenges of the system today and in the future.
Finally, we need to have a complete review of the system, its services, its funding, its goals and its sustainability at local levels and, more important, at the first ministers level. All need to be involved from the highest political offices on down to the neighbourhood doctors who are charged with the job of delivering services to their communities.
The motion today calls for the government to take note of the concerns of Canadians. I strongly urge the government to do so and to listen to Canadians. Give them the health care system they want and do so in such a way that it will be there tomorrow and into the future. Let us end the cycle of the unsustainable, underfunded, unresponsive health care that we have today. Let us learn from our mistakes and do better in the future.