Madam Speaker, I rise today on what is perhaps the most important issue in my constituency, and that is health care.
My riding is largely served by a community hospital, the Queensway Carleton Hospital. It has a catchment area of 400,000 and growing. It is one of the oldest populations in all of Canada. I believe it is the oldest in Ontario. This catchment area is not only large but it is aging and it is putting enormous pressure on what is a relatively small community hospital. As such, it is my job to do everything I can to fight for that hospital and its interests.
However, obstacles have been put in its way. The National Capital Commission owns the land upon which this hospital operates and charges tens of thousands of dollars every single year to this community hospital in rent. At the end of this decade that rent is predicted to rise dramatically. There is a renewal option that says that the new rent rate will be 6.5% of the current market value of the land. In other words, we could be talking in the millions of dollars, that is millions of dollars that would otherwise go to patient care, to beds, warm hospital rooms and advanced equipment, would instead be going to another level of government. Imagine that. The federal government transfers dollars to the provinces for health care, the provinces transfer those dollars to the hospital for delivery and then the hospital has to pay that money back to the federal government in rent. How outrageous.
I have asked the government if it would instruct the NCC to sell the land to the hospital for the price of $1. This would not only relieve the financial pressures and uncertainty related to this rent quagmire, but it would further give the hospital control over its entire campus, allowing it to construct new buildings that could then be sub-leased out to family doctors, cancer specialists and other health care practitioners at a discounted rate to entice the best professionals to come to the heart of my community. At the same time, that could raise some extra dollars in revenue for the hospital while building synergy right on the hospital campus with these health care professionals.
I made this case to Liberal members of Parliament, to the NCC and, of course, I have been working with the hospital to advance that position. So far the government has been unwilling to bend. As a result of the public pressure that we have built in my constituency, the NCC has been forced to sit down with the hospital and discuss the matter face to face. The hospital has put forward four proposals on how this dispute might be resolved as I understand it.
I wonder if the hon. member across the way would be willing to stand in the House and tell us which of those four proposals the NCC supports.