Bob Rae

[Ethics, November 28th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the organization Campaign Research, which has done a lot of work for the Conservative Party, launched an unprecedented and, if I may so, a reprehensible campaign, using your own words, in the constituency of my colleague from Mount Royal. That organization has now been censured by the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, which has described the acts, omissions and public statements as reducing confidence in the marketing industry.

When are the Conservatives going to cut ties with this organization? When are they going to take some responsibility for their own malfeasance?

[Health, November 27th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, since 1985, the cost of drugs has grown from about 10% of the total cost of health care to now close to 17%. The simple reality is that this is the fastest growing area of health care costs. It is being borne increasingly by individuals, not simply by provinces.

Does the Prime Minister not understand that in taking this ideological watertight compartment view of the federation that he is in fact denying Canadians access to health care, something of which we are proud of as Canadians and want to protect and advance as Canadians?

[Health, November 27th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the biggest challenges facing the system, as identified in the 2004 health accord, were the matter of pharmaceutical drugs and the fact that approximately 6,000,000 Canadians are not adequately covered by the provinces and the existing legislation.

If the Prime Minister believes in a universal system, as he claims, why not address this issue with the premiers in order to come up with a truly national program?

[Health, November 27th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I wonder if I could ask the Prime Minister a question about health care.

As many as three million Canadians have no coverage at all with respect to the cost of pharmaceutical drugs and another three million only have coverage for the catastrophic cost. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research have identified inadequate drug coverage as the next issue that has to be dealt with by the first ministers.

Would the Prime Minister agree that in a health accord that needs to happen in 2014 the question of drug coverage will be front and centre in terms of the position of the Government of Canada?

[Intergovernmental Affairs, November 22nd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, there is trouble with the philosophical approach, which the Prime Minister has just explained to the House. As knowledgeable as we now see that the Prime Minister is with respect to issues of philosophy, perhaps I can just bring him down to earth.

When it comes to unemployment and jobs, when it comes to taxes, when it comes to health, when it comes to poverty, when it comes to the reality of Canadian life, people do not care whether it is a federal jurisdiction or a provincial jurisdiction. They want their first ministers to be working in co-operation together.

Why will the Prime Minister not do that, like all of the first ministers around the world?

[Intergovernmental Affairs, November 22nd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's reply to the question about unemployment before and after the recession is not quite correct.

In any event, governments do not operate in silos. Provincial and federal governments share jurisdiction over resources or professional training in the economy. In every other federation around the world, first ministers hold conferences. Why not do the same in Canada?

[Intergovernmental Affairs, November 22nd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, whether it is child poverty or whether it is skills training, whether it is a national energy and resource strategy for the country, whether it is the critical question of tax policy, whatever the economic issue may be, these are shared jurisdictions between the provinces and the federal government.

I wonder if the Prime Minister could explain what objection he has to having a regular meeting with the premiers to discuss questions of economic management in the future of Canada.

[Health, November 21st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the solution to the problem is not to jail people who are taking the drug because they have an addiction. The solution is not to put them in prison as the Prime Minister is suggesting.

Here is an example. Every health minister across the country and the College of Family Physicians has requested the same thing of the minister. I am well aware that the minister wants to interrupt, but I am asking the Prime Minister the question.

Why not stop the approval process for this generic drug, since, according to aboriginal leaders, it is going to cause an epidemic in northern Canada?

[Health, November 21st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the Council of Family Physicians and every minister of health across the country, both of them together, have asked the government to delay granting a drug information number to this generic product, which is now coming on the market. They have asked that it be done. There is an epidemic, particularly in isolated communities across the country, but not only in isolated communities, it is on the street as well.

Why would the Prime Minister's minister not sit down with the ministers of health and act with them co-operatively to deal with this question, and specifically to exercise her powers—

[Health, November 21st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it has been estimated that in the northern reserves of northern Ontario as many as 10,000 of the 45,000 people are addicted to the drug Oxycontin. The chief of the Nishnawbe First Nation has said that the decision not to deal with this crisis by the Minister of Health is another blow to nations that are currently combatting an addiction epidemic.

The Minister of Health has the clear power to delay the granting of a licence to a drug where there is a public health crisis. I would like to ask the Prime Minister this. Why is the government not addressing this public health crisis?