Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that it is necessary for me to rise in the House once again regarding the decision of the government to refuse to defend the Canada Health Act on behalf of the men and women who serve their country as members of our armed forces.
I am referring to the decision of the government to allow its provincial cousins in Ontario to charge and collect the illegal health care premium tax. I am pleased to confirm, for the benefit of all Canadians who may be aware of this tax, the facts.
After campaigning on a promise not to raise taxes, the Liberal government introduced a controversial new tax called the Ontario health premium with a claim that all contributions made by residents would be funnelled directly into the Ontario health insurance plan, OHIP.
This huge tax increase, which at last count bilked $2.4 billion from Ontarians, has been confirmed, as recently as yesterday, as a permanent tax increase on the people of Ontario. While I am pleased to confirm that the new Conservative leader at Queen's Park, Mr. John Tory, has confirmed that a Conservative government would eliminate the tax, soldiers in Ontario should not have to wait for the government to change in order to get their money back. Members of the Canadian Forces residing in Ontario are insured under the Canadian Forces health services plan and are specifically excluded by the Canada Health Act from the definition of insured persons.
The Canadian Forces health services plan pays $450 million into its health care system and the federal government identifies that money as a direct federal contribution to the total health care spending in Canada. In turn, the federal government uses this figure in health care negotiations to reduce the amount that it transfers to the provinces. As a result, Canadian soldiers living in Ontario are forced to pay twice for health care. That is wrong and it must stop.
The particulars of the case of the military couple that I raised in question period are as follows. Both husband and wife are members of the Canadian Forces. Their first child was born in May of this year. These are Canadian citizens, members of the Canadian military with their child being born in a hospital in Canada.
Up until the birth of the child, military coverage paid for the delivery. The problems arose after the delivery. Usually when a child is born the mother's coverage is extended to the child. An insurance application on behalf of the child that would be filled out in the hospital at the time of birth can only be completed with an OHIP number from one of the parents. In this case, since both parents are military, they do not have a provincial health insurance number so the application cannot be completed.
When the military couple took their sick baby to the hospital emergency department they were told to get out their chequebook before their child could receive treatment. They were also told to forget about their military coverage because it would not apply to their child.
As a couple they are paying upwards of almost $2,000 in health insurance premiums, thanks to the Ontario health premium tax, and they are still refused treatment for their baby unless they pay up front. Like many Canadians who have suffered from the health care cutbacks the Prime Minister used to accumulate a budget surplus when he was finance minister, this couple was forced to use a hospital emergency room in the absence of a family doctor.
The acute doctor shortage is even worse for military personnel. Military members are routinely at the bottom of any waiting list for a doctor because by the time they move up to the list to get a family doctor they have been posted to another base and have to start all over again. This has led to some military families keeping their family doctors in cities hundreds of kilometres away just so their families will not be without a doctor, or worse, they just go without a doctor and hope they do not get sick.
Until this couple contacted their member of Parliament they were told it could take upwards of six months to get health insurance coverage for their baby. They were told an OHIP application had to be completed in person, booked in advance by appointment in a city three hours away, thanks to the cutback services provided to Canadians who live in small towns or rural areas.