Mr. Speaker, today I am requesting an emergency debate concerning the state of public health care in Canada.
In the coming days, the Prime Minister will be meeting with premiers from provinces across the country to discuss health care and to finalize an agreement for long-term funding of our health care system. However, this comes at a time when a number of Conservative premiers are putting forward plans to privatize our health care system with for-profit private health care investments, which is deeply troubling given that the outcome would be less care, higher costs and a worsening of the current crisis. If we do not make decisions this year, the current crisis will determine not just the following years but the following decade of care that Canadians receive.
Given how important it is that we make the right choices now to invest in a public health care system that all Canadians can access and that we take a strong stance against the American-style for-profit private delivery of care, I am requesting an emergency debate on this matter in the House today.