Dennis Mills

[Supply, November 19th, 2002]

Madam Speaker, I stand here today and celebrate the initiative by the leader of the New Democratic Party to bring this issue to the floor of the House of Commons. I have always believed that the primary purpose of the Chamber was to speak for those who did not have a voice and who were in the most difficult moment of their lives.

I believe that what has happened over this screw-up in revenue and finance has been one of the most despicable things I have ever experienced in my 20 years on Parliament Hill. If ever there ever were a moment for the entire Chamber to come together and create a consensus to fix this immediately it would be on this motion. I will do my part, with my colleagues on this side of the House, to work with the NDP to have this corrected.

[Health Care System, October 28th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for the question.

I support my colleague, the member for Pickering—Ajax—Uxbridge. The most profitable sector on the planet is the brand name pharmaceutical drug sector which makes more money than the banks. I for one have passionate views that there has to be a way to do that. We have to respect the drug companies' research, but we also have proof of a lot of examples where sales and marketing were lumped into research to get certain percentages.

It is an absolute shame, the drug costs for seniors in Canada. They are using their equity, their savings, to buy pills to keep themselves alive. In a country like ours, shame on us.

[Health Care System, October 28th, 2002]

I am going to answer why we pulled the money. Especially after the Human Resources Development Canada debate we had here, the Auditor General decided that before any government funds would be transferred to organizations, and there were no exceptions, they would present a proper business plan and an indication of how the funds would be spent.

With all the affection and admiration I have for Participaction, it failed to deliver that business plan. It resisted. Those are the facts and they can be checked anywhere.

I would like to go to the member's opening comments about putting feet to the fire. I have challenged my own government on the whole issue.

Three years ago we should have spent $100 million in mobilizing Canadians around the whole area of physical activity. I think Canadians would welcome an investment of $100 million if we could save $5 billion. It would be a great thing if the opposition could help press that point. It is a heck of a lot easier to spend $100 million to save $5 billion than to throw $5 billion at something without knowing where it is going.

[Health Care System, October 28th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I can answer that excellent question in a very specific way. Over the years Participaction has done a fantastic job. It appeared in front of our committee.

[Health Care System, October 28th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Bonavista--Trinity--Conception.

First, I want to congratulate the committee led by Senator Michael Kirby and the committee led by former premier, Roy Romanow for all the work that they have be doing over the last year in advancing the debate on this issue, which essentially stamps the character of our country. If there is a defining issue that makes Canada so special, so unique on the world stage, it is our universal health care system. I believe that all of us in this room want to do everything we can to ensure that the universal health care system is enshrined.

A few weeks ago I was talking to one of the doctors in one of the hospitals in my riding in downtown Toronto, the East General Hospital. He was complaining about the lack of MRI equipment and staff. He brought to my attention that in Toronto a dog, a pet, could get access to an MRI machine faster than a person who was in desperate need of an MRI. I am not against pets. I have over 10,000 pet owners in my riding. I totally celebrate and do not want to take anything away from pets or that community. However the priorities in Canada are wrong when pets are on MRI machines before patients, human beings.

We really have to look into all the possibilities that exist to reinvigorate our health care system before we spend another five cents. I agree with the member for Ancaster--Dundas--Flamborough--Aldershot. The notion of us just automatically transferring another $5 billion, $6 billion, whatever the number is, without going through the system line by line ensuring that we are operating at our capacity at our maximum potential for efficiencies would be irresponsible. I am definitely against a dedicated tax.

We have missed a lot of opportunities in improving the health care system and improving the efficiencies in the health care system. I would like to bring one specific area to the attention of the House which we talked about four years ago.

A number of us in the House and in all parties chaired a committee on the importance of physical fitness and amateur sport in Canada. We had some of the best doctors in our country appear before us. They brought to our attention that of all the G-7 countries, we were the worst in terms of physical fitness; we were right at the bottom. They said that only 29% of the people in our country spent an average of half an hour on physical fitness in a day. They brought to our attention that if we could move that number from 29% to 39%, a 10% increase, then we could save $5 billion a year in health care costs. That is where we should be looking.

What disturbs me about this specific idea given to us by experts is that we have let four years slip by. We have missed four years. Let us be conservative. If in three of those four years we had fully mobilized the will of the country, we could have saved around $15 billion in our health care system. That would have more than looked after what Senator Kirby has recommended in his committee report.

I personally have a view about just transferring money. I do not know how this $5 billion has been calculated. It seems very strange to me. It is a number that I sometimes find hard to absorb. It seems there is the idea we would just throw more money at it without doing a line by line check not just of efficiencies but also of what are the areas of prevention we could take advantage of.

One idea is in the area of physical activity. That is a savings of $5 billion a year. My goodness, what if we could get to a point where 50% of our nation exercised 30 minutes a day, walked for 30 minutes a day? Just think of the savings. This would all go to our capacity to sustain our universal health care system.

The second point I want to put on the table is also in the area of prevention. In my community in downtown Toronto there are many communities that use alternative therapies such as shiatsu therapy and acupuncture. There are all types of therapies in the area of prevention that could save millions and millions and possibly billions of dollars for our health care system.

There are certifiable statistics showing that 10% of our country's workforce is clinically depressed and only one-quarter of 1% of that 10% is diagnosed. The cost to our health care system of 10% our workforce being clinically depressed is staggering.

We have to get in to the whole realm of prevention. To get prevention exercises moving forward costs money, but it does not cost billions to prick the conscience of Canadians and get them involved in a national exercise when collectively they know they have a responsibility to do their part in order to sustain our health care system.

It would probably cost us about $100 million a year in promotion and mobilization. I would invest $100 million if I thought it could save $5 billion. Experts have given us this advice time and time again in committee. I am sure the Secretary of State for Amateur Sport will deal with this issue in even more detail when he speaks on Wednesday.

I applaud that we are having this debate. I do not like the idea that it is only 14% or 16%. I do not think Canadians really care about that. They want to know that we have come up with an action plan that we can get on with right away. I would like to see a very focused effort in the whole area of prevention.

[Resumption of debate on Address in Reply, October 1st, 2002]

Madam Speaker, as I am from Toronto's waterfront I am not qualified to say whether or not there is potential for a national park classification in the member's particular area. We all know our species at risk legislation, which we all essentially passed fell off the Order Paper, will be reintroduced soon. That legislation should deal with that particular problem.

[Resumption of debate on Address in Reply, October 1st, 2002]

Madam Speaker, I appreciate this question because I tried to allude to this point in my opening remarks.

Two weeks ago several men and women with disabilities came into my constituency office on the Danforth. I was horrified when I saw the bureaucratic vision of the new regulations. I called the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and told him this was unacceptable. I have talked to other people in my party and I would be willing to stake anything that on this Liberal watch there is no way that our commitment to those who are the most disadvantaged will be diminished in any way, shape or form. That bureaucratic view of the regulations will be reviewed, repaired and corrected in the not too distant future.

[Resumption of debate on Address in Reply, October 1st, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the issue raised by the hon. member for Elk Island about his constituent who just buried her husband and who had a clawback on $2,500 is the type of issue and the type of constituent that we in the House should be able to rally around.

I have always believed that the reason we are sitting here in the House as members of Parliament is to speak for men and women who do not have a voice; to speak for those men and women who are truly disadvantaged, men and women who cannot afford lobbyists. We must look after constituents such as the woman the member for Elk Island described.

For the last seven or eight years we have had a fiscal obsession in the House of Commons that on more than one occasion has driven me nuts. People cheered when we eliminated the deficit a year ahead of time. I have said in the House many times in the last few years that I did not think it was such a great big deal.

I come from a community in downtown Toronto with many low income families who carried the burden of that accelerated paydown of our deficit. Quite frankly, over the last few months I have been terribly discouraged at the direction of my Liberal government. I felt that we were missing an opportunity with the resurgence in the economy and with the great surpluses to deal with the real, true core value system of why we are Liberals.

When I heard the Speech from the Throne yesterday, I could not believe it. It was almost like a conversion. The Prime Minister has been in public office for 40 years and I thought that the clarity bill was his best crafted jewel, but this Speech from the Throne is a better crafted jewel.

In the latter part of August he sent out a memo to all members of caucus asking us for our ideas and thoughts on what we could do. I sat with some of my constituents over a few days and we decided to send the Prime Minister a tough letter on the issues that voters in my community really felt needed to be addressed. I told them that I did not want to create any expectation because for the last few years we have been hammering the executive of the government on lots of issues, and it has said that it has the fiscal obsession but that it has to keep cutting because it has no money. However, I said that we would try it one more time.

On April 9 we wrote a letter to the Prime Minister and challenged him to have the courage to deal with some of the issues that we raised in our community.

I want to thank all the men and women in my community who came together for a two and a half day crash period that put the ideas together. When I talked to some of them last night they were pretty excited.

Compassionate care for the gravely ill is on page 5 in the Speech from the Throne. We said that Canada is one of the few countries without a national food plan. The security and safety of our national food supply must become a priority and it is on page 4.

Canada does not have a national framework for managing its freshwater resources. It is there on page 7. We have approximately one million children in Canada who cannot participate in organized amateur sports and recreational activities because families cannot afford either the registration fees or the equipment. We talked about health care needs. Helping Canada's kids is on page 5 in the Speech from the Throne.

We all know the challenge we have right across the country regarding affordable housing. The government has extended the commitment to affordable housing on top of the $650 million on page 11.

We put in a note to the Prime Minister a challenge regarding the plan for the redevelopment of the Toronto waterfront by Mr. Fung, Mr. Smith and the Minister of Transport that would see Government of Canada controlled areas turned into wall to wall condominiums for the wealthy. It is addressed on page 7. We would ensure that what is left of the Toronto waterfront becomes environmentally sensitive and recreational for families and kids.

I have been tough on the executive of the government over the years, but I must say that today I stand here and I am pleased. I know my constituents are pleased.

I salute the men and women who helped craft the words and who assisted in putting this renewed vision to what really is an old Liberalism but now will be the new Liberalism. I am hoping that the spirit which exists within this document will have a momentum which will move it into the execution phase. As my colleague from Ancaster--Dundas--Flamborough--Aldershot said earlier, we must now take the commitments that are on this paper, in this crafted jewel, and ensure they happen.

As we execute what is in the Speech from the Throne we will lose some popularity, but for too long around here we have been worried about the polls and we have not been putting enough emphasis on causes. These causes will cost some money and cause some discomfort for some people, especially those who are in the advantaged class in the country, but when Canadians see that these initiatives are for a greater and higher good, after a while the causes will not be as unpopular and Canadians will rally around us. I am in full support of everything that is in the Speech from the Throne.

[Physical Activity and Sport Act, June 18th, 2002]

I have a short response, Mr. Speaker. This sort of hazy kind of answer from the Canadian Alliance is not good political leadership. If we put $100 million into physical activity to save $5 billion in the health care system, that to me is good economic policy.

[Physical Activity and Sport Act, June 18th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I was not referring to a cabinet shuffle. I was referring to the fact that we only have a few months left before the budget is locked in place.

I am counting on the Canadian Alliance because it has been part of the problem on amateur sport over the last seven years because it has been driving this fiscal knife so deep at times that it does not even know some of the files that it has affected. I am counting on him to be vocal in question period and other places to ensure that amateur sport is re-established as a priority.