Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague was relying on quotes, so I am going to share some quotes with him.
Bernie Robinson, from the Ontario Nurses Association, said, “I fail to understand where the government thinks it's going to get the human resources to staff these private clinics other than by draining our already-taxed public system.”
J.P. Hornick, from the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, said, “To improve access to care, public hospitals require staff and funding, both of which will be even further depleted with increased reliance on private clinics.”
Finally, Dr. Bob Bell, former deputy minister of health in Ontario, said, “I totally agree with their desire to do more surgery by moving it out of the hospital into the community. But moving it to a for-profit model is simply dumb.”
This is not about upholding the Canada Health Act. Why is the federal government not stepping in to make sure that the additional funds are not diverted by the provinces to private clinics, even if they are publicly paid for?