Mr. Speaker, Canadians want a clear answer about what the government's plan is for health care. Will the government rearrange its priorities, or will Canadians pay more taxes?
House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2011, with 77% of the vote.
Health Care October 29th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, Canadians want a clear answer about what the government's plan is for health care. Will the government rearrange its priorities, or will Canadians pay more taxes?
Health Care System October 28th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, I listened very closely to my colleague's comments on health care. I am relatively new to the House in the sense that I have only been here since the last election and do not exactly understand all of the integral details of how things work around here. However it seems to me that when a government asks for a take note debate, an emergency debate or a debate on an issue there should be some sort of a plan put before the House so we can intelligently debate it.
What we have today is a debate on health care. We have had 10 years of absolute neglect by the government on health care and yet we were asked to come here and debate but I have heard nothing of any substance at all from the other side.
Why would the government be doing this at this stage and why today? Is there something I am missing? I would like her comments on that.
Health Care System October 28th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, I have one quick comment and a question. I would like to clear up the hon. member's comments in his speech, because I think he referred to my leader as suggesting that he had some opinions about how our health care system was ranked. I would like to make a reference to that ranking, because that was not our leader's suggestion. It is the OECD nations that have ranked Canada eighteenth as far as MRIs, seventeenth for CT scanners, and eighth for radiology equipment. But when it comes to per capita dollar spending we are fifth. If we get rid of the United States, because it is not an example we like to look at, and factor in age in Canada, we are putting in more dollars per capita in Canada than any of the OECD nations do. These are what the facts are and they are not our facts. That is out of twenty-four.
As for the question I would like to ask, I think the member made reference to the piece of legislation that we are dealing with here. I would like to know what that is because I do not know what piece of legislation we are dealing with. In fact, I do not even know what we are debating, because the motion today states the debate was to be on health care. I am not sure. But let us have a plan to debate. I do not see a plan coming from the other side to have a good debate on, unless the hon. member has something.
Health Care System October 28th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, I listened very intently to the hon. member's comments.
I am a little disturbed that he said to get on with the plan. I have not seen the plan yet. Canadians have not seen the plan. It would be quite interesting to see what the plan is. The government passed it off to Mr. Romanow for a two year hiatus that Canadians cannot afford.
It seems that the bulk of the member's comments were about preventive health care. If we want to see if someone means what he is saying, then we should find out where his feet are on the issue. The government talks the good talk about preventive health care, but it pulled the rug out from under the Participaction program, as an example. If the government is really serious about prevention and looking after our youth and having a nation that is dealing with preventive health care, then why has it not reinjected the dollars to put that program on its feet again?
Health Care System October 28th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, I am a little puzzled by the question because I understood that the NDP agreed with the Canada Health Act, which allows private delivery of health care within a publicly funded system under the jurisdiction of the provinces, and to be flexible in that. We would agree with the Canada Health Act and complying with that. I am a little confused by the question. We certainly agree with that and I thought the NDP did. I hope that is clear enough for him.
Petitions October 28th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36 I have the honour to present this petition to the House on behalf of the constituents of Yellowhead, who request that the Parliament of Canada, under section 15(1) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, uphold the Latimer decision of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Taxation October 28th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, that answer had nothing to do with the question. Senator Kirby's committee has called for new funding for health care. The Romanow commission will likely do exactly the same thing.
Canadians do not need and do not want a higher tax burden. Will the government raise taxes, yes or no?
Taxation October 28th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, the finance minister said that he would not raise the GST to pay for health care.
Five years ago the former finance minister stood in the House and said “We have stated that contributions to the Canada pension plan is not a tax”.
Is the government considering an increase in the CPP premium to pay for health care?
Health Care System October 28th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, the member is absolutely right. This is one of the things I said earlier and that is why when we did a poll last year we found that 77% of Canadians were prepared to reform the system. They were not reforming the system because it was comfortable, they were reforming the system because it was not doing what they expected it to do.
We also see that when two-thirds of our general practitioners are so swamped and overworked that they are not accepting any new patients. I talked to one individual from just down the street here who said he was going over to Hull to get an appointment to see a doctor. When I asked what the problem was he said it was not a problem he was just going to see if he would be accepted as a patient. That is a big problem when we see that happening in Canada.
We need to understand that $100 million was spent by Canada on approved procedures for health care in the United States in the last two years. These were approved. We sent patients there because we could not provide the health care. That is nothing. There are many individuals who go down and access services there because they cannot get it here in a timely way. That number may reach $2 billion a year. When we see those kinds of things happening we get a sense that the cracks in the system are wide and deep and will continue unless something is done.
Health Care System October 28th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, the member may be referring to profit as being a dirty word. That is something we must careful of. When it comes to a single entity, whether it is a monopoly by the public system or private system, it is inefficient and does not work. We need competition to keep it healthy. Our health care system right now is 31% private. Whether it should be more or less, that is a provincial jurisdiction, but it should have some freedom to be able to explore that.
What we are saying is that if the private sector can do it and provide the efficiencies to do it for the same price, it should have the freedom to do it. Patients do not care who is providing the service. They are more concerned that the service is there for them when they need it. That is where we must go as Canadians because that is a Canadian value.