Mr. Speaker, yesterday our colleagues in the other place released the latest chapter in their study on the state of our health care system. Their conclusion is simple and straightforward: As presently funded and structured our health care system is not sustainable. If funding problems are not addressed and serious reforms are not introduced the system will continue to fail Canadians.
Thankfully, our colleagues did not stop there. Rather than dance around the difficult issues they have provided the government with concrete options to save our health care system. First, it must provide stable, predictable, multi-year funding, something for which my party has been calling for some time. Second, it must make the system more transparent and accountable by separating the roles of funder, provider and evaluator of health care services. Third, it must enhance the quality of services by creating competition within our publicly insured system.
It is time to end the charade. The government can choose to delay reforms and hide behind the Romanow commission indefinitely, or it can act now on the sensible recommendations found in this report. Everyone knows the system is broken. It is time for the government to fix it and fix it now.