“Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to be here tonight. I would first like to begin by extending my congratulations to Louise Arbour on her appointment today to serve as Canada’s next governor general. She is a human rights champion, and she has had a remarkable career. She will, no doubt, continue to serve our country well in this new role. With that, I would like to turn the topic of debate this evening to Alberta’s Bill 11 and the Canada Health Act. In the last election, the Prime Minister promised Canadians that a Liberal government would protect our values and way of life. The Liberal platform highlighted our public health care system as an example of Canadians’ belief in the common good and a key difference between Canada and the U.S. The Liberal platform pledged to defend the Canada Health Act and told Canadians, “It’s time to return to the foundational values upon which our national health care was developed: free of charge, fair, universal, and accessible.” Today, those values are under threat, but instead of fighting for what matters to Canadians, the federal government is looking the other way. This morning, an independent legal opinion was published that confirmed what many have been saying for months. Alberta’s Bill 11 violates both the letter and the spirit of the Canada Health Act. The legal opinion, commissioned by the Canadian Health Coalition, explains that allowing people to pay privately for faster access to medically necessary care creates unequal access based on one’s ability to pay. In plain terms, Bill 11 would create an American-style, two-tier health care system. It is time for the minister to make clear that the government will keep its promise to Canadians and defend the Canada Health Act. The minister has called herself “the guardian of the Canada Health Act”, but since December, she has failed to act on this threat to our public health care system. Today, the Canada Health Coalition held a press conference with health and legal experts, calling for the minister to act, to take a clear position against Bill 11 and to speak about the threats the bill poses for all Canadians. Jason MacLean, chair of the Canadian Health Coalition, spoke about how the crisis in our health care system, fuelled by Conservative premiers, is seen as a business opportunity by major insurance companies. That should concern every Canadian who believes that health care is a right. Dr. Melanie Bechard, the chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare and a pediatric emergency physician at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, also spoke today in Ottawa. She spoke about how allowing dual practice will impact wait times, stating, “If we are...prioritizing...patients who can pay privately, that means that the majority of patients who rely on the public system will have to wait longer.” Let us be clear. Canadians deserve quicker access to the health care they need, but a two-tier health care system is not a solution to long wait times. Chris Gallaway, the executive director of Friends of Medicare in Alberta, also spoke in Ottawa today and called on the minister to take action to stop Bill 11. He said bluntly, “no more delays. No more stalling. No more talking about looking at regulations and implementation. We need you to do your job and show leadership”. If the federal government fails to enforce the Canada Health Act now, it sends a clear message far beyond Alberta. It tells provinces that the rules can be bent. It tells private interests that our public system is open for profits. Canadians did not build Medicare so that it could be quietly replaced with a system where wealth determines who gets treated first. If the federal government does not act now, it risks opening the door to further privatization across the country. I will ask this again: Will the minister stop stalling, enforce the Canada Health Act and stand up for a health care system that serves everyone equally?”
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B
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Mr. Speaker, Thanks · 55 wordsI want to pay tribute to the incoming governor general, the Hon. Louise Arbour, who is a voice for human rights, a voice for women in the law, a voice for official bilingualism and a voice for many of the values we hold sacred in this country.1I want to congratulate her on her appointment.ThanksProcedure · 15 wordsI also want to share my resonance with the values the hon. member is identifying.ProcedureAnecdote · 71 wordsI am the son of two physicians who were immigrants and chose Canada over the United States because of their belief in providing health care regardless of the cost and regardless of someone’s ability to pay.Indeed, my first interest in politics came from hearing their stories about their bedside conversations about what was happening in the hospital where they were working and their concern that medicare was maybe under threat.AnecdoteClaims · 137 wordsThe hon. member and I are just two of the millions of people who care passionately about our universal public health care insurance system and share our commitment wholeheartedly, something that has become key to our national identity.It is one of our defining nation-building achievements, reflecting who we are and what we value as a nation: a simple, enduring principle that access to medically necessary care can be based on need, not the ability or willingness to pay, and something that has a strong cross-partisan consensus.Partly on pointThe Canada Health Act, an achievement of previous Parliaments, puts that principle into action, safeguarding universal access to medically necessary hospital and physician services without financial barriers, 2and setting the standard that provinces and territories must meet in order to receive their full share of the Canada health transfer payment.3Promise · 20 wordsAs guardian of the Canada Health Act, and of those payments, the government will uphold it with resolve and care.Vague promiseClaims · 54 wordsWhen a province or territory allows patient charges for medically necessary services, dollar-for-dollar deductions are made from that jurisdiction’s Canada health transfer payment, 4as I think Canadians would expect.Since 2015, those deductions have totalled more than $329 million.5Deductions are not taken without some serious consideration of the potential violation that is involved.Reasoning · 35 wordsI think that is evidence of the federal government’s steadfast commitment to the values at the heart of medicare, values that are a shared duty, a shared responsibility, if we are going to protect them.Claims · 148 wordsOur health care system is strongest when governments at all levels work together to ensure that Canadians can receive the services they need without financial barriers.This shared duty guides how we enforce the act.Our goal is not to penalize provinces and territories at the first sign of non-compliance but to uphold the principle of medicare through collaboration, through connection and through communication.When issues arise, we reach out.We listen.We gather the facts and share information openly.We work with our provincial and territorial partners to resolve challenges, as I know the minister is doing.We apply the act fairly and consistently, always mindful that co-operation, not confrontation, has kept medicare strong for generations.This approach has actually delivered results.Since 2018, more than $227 million has been returned to provinces and territories after they took action to eliminate patient charges for medically necessary services.6Reasoning · 27 wordsThis shows how collaboration protects access to care based on need, how the collaboration we do results in a reaction by the governments we are engaging with.Promise · 50 wordsWe bring that spirit of collaboration to the work before us today.We will remain engaged, reviewing proposals in good faith, asking questions early and keeping lines of communication open.Vague promiseWhere adjustments are needed to respect the Canada Health Act, we will work together to ensure that they are made.Vague promiseClaims · 13 wordsThat is how we protect patients.That is how we keep medicare’s promise.
