Now she is saying they did not. She says that they consulted but ignored them because she knows very well the provinces would never agree to that. They would never agree to go ahead with big cuts without changes at the same time to the Canada Health Act, which is where I want to go now.
The truth is that over the last number of years waiting lists for critical surgeries of all kinds have been going up. The Canadian Institute for Health Information specifically points to some examples of that in its 2002 report. If one were to judge a health care system, one would have to judge it by how it serves patients.
I want to argue that the government has done a poor job of providing the provinces with the tools they need to improve health care because it adheres to this doctrine with respect to the Canada Health Act. It has refused to loosen up some of the strictures of the Canada Health Act which make it impossible for the provinces to truly address some of the problems that they face.
Yes, the government has put back some of the money it took out but it has come nowhere near addressing the real reforms that need to be undertaken to ensure those waiting lists go down and are dealt with.
Why is the government so doctrinaire on the Canada Health Act knowing that it is responsible for helping to drive up the waiting periods for people who are facing critical treatments and critical surgeries of all kinds?