Mr. Speaker, to amend the Canada Health Act in order to put in the wishes of Canadians, as the member pointed out, theoretically we would have to take all the health care delivery services provided by the provinces and put them under federal jurisdiction. I would think that will probably not happen.
When the member commented on private for profit delivery versus a publicly administered system, she indicated that the public health system was more cost efficient. I want to repeat why I believe we should not have private health care. It is not so much that there are cost efficiencies. The issue is that to the extent that there is private for profit health care delivery out there, almost two tiered or semi-tiered, that means that real resources, like doctors, nurses and the best specialists, will be taken out of the public system. Therefore, if the resources available, the doctors, nurses and other resources, stay the same that means that the public system is losing real resources and probably some of the best resources available to the public system. That is the reason I oppose private for profit health care delivery.
By the same token though, there is a debate going on that if our only alternative, for instance in terms of having a hospital, is to enter into a P3 arrangement, a public-private partnership, do we want a hospital or no hospital? If there is no money, would it not be better to lever or co-finance the hospital for the community than to have no hospital at all? The services still have to be delivered at the best available price. In some cases, I think there is probably a good case where hospitals, even in a P3 partnership, would probably be more cost efficient than a publicly administered system that has to go out and borrow the money.