House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2000, with 56% of the vote.
Hepatitis C April 28th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member should know but I will tell her that I was wearing that ribbon long before she ever saw one. I got it from Jeremy Beaty of the Canadian Hepatitis C Society when I met with him to talk about victims compensation. The difference is that this government has produced $1.1 billion in compensation for 22,000 victims. That is the way we feel about the issue.
Hepatitis C April 28th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, I will tell Keray Regan as I said to Dorothy, Christine Campbell and all the other victims to whom reference has been made, I say to all those victims that we will ensure there is a publicly financed system of medicare there to look after them in their illness. We will ensure that Canada's social safety net constructed by Liberal governments in the past will be there to respond to their needs. We will make sure that responsible public policy guarantees the future of those services because that in the last analysis is our most important moral responsibility.
Hepatitis C April 28th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, I hope I am acting like the custodian of Canada's health care system.
As the custodian of Canada's health care system I can imagine hundreds of cases that pack emotional power of people who are in difficult circumstances, who suffer illnesses, injuries and harm as a result of risk inherent in surgery, in taking vaccines or in taking new prescription drugs, each of them with a compelling emotional pitch about how much they need our help. That is what medicare is for.
If we compensate in cash—
Hepatitis C April 28th, 1998
It would not be difficult to identify a wide category of people who suffer harm or illness because of risk inherent in the health care system.
However, as we have been saying in the House now for four weeks, if it is our policy to pay cash compensation to those who become ill, if it is our policy to pay cash to those who are victims of risk inherent in the health care system, we will no longer be able to have the system of public health care of which we are so proud.
Hepatitis C April 28th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, Theresa Robertson is going to need Canada's health care system. She is going to need medicare, a publicly financed system of the highest possible quality of care in the world.
Hepatitis C April 28th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, all governments in the country, including the provincial governments that actually deliver services and are the proprietors of the health delivery services on the ground, agreed that the appropriate response when it comes to paying cash compensation is to pay those for whom infections resulted from fault or negligence, and that is exactly what we have done.
It is the right principle. It is recognized to be good public policy and all governments agree on that course.
Hepatitis C April 28th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, our first obligation to Dorothy is to make sure there is a good health care system in place when she needs it.
Our first obligation to Christine Campbell is to make sure medicare remains alive in the country.
Our first obligation to all these victims is to make sure that our social safety net is there to provide disability benefits, medical attention and treatment, and to research until we find a cure.
We are not going to do that if this hon. member's course is taken because it will be the end of publicly financed health care.
Hepatitis C April 28th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, the question at the heart of this matter is not the question put by the hon. member for his own reasons. It is the question he refused to respond to in the debate last week, namely, should the public make cash payments to those injured through the health system where they were injured through no one's fault. The answer to that has to be no.
Indeed in the last analysis, as disclosed in Hansard of last Thursday, the hon. member came to that conclusion. That is the reason this government and all governments of Canada are taking the right course.
Hepatitis C April 28th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, it has now been some days that the hon. member has been asking these questions. I urge the hon. member to remember that we are talking in the last analysis about our public health system in Canada.
Members of the government realize that we have no greater moral duty, we have no higher responsibility to all Canadians including the victims of hepatitis C, than to ensure that our publicly funded system of medicare will be there when they need it into the future.
There is no greater way of imperilling that system than to take the course urged—
Hepatitis C April 28th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member should know, for his information, that as of last summer there was no provincial government prepared to talk about compensating any hepatitis C victims.
The only reason we have $1.1 billion being offered to 22,000 victims of hepatitis C is that the federal government took the leadership and made that happen.