Listen to the people, do the right thing PM

PARLIAMENT HILL--As we count down the days and months before Jean ChrÃ©tien leaves office as Prime Minister and Paul Martin takes over, a major challenge faces both men. Will ChrÃ©tien's legacy be the weakening and dismantling of medicare, our universal public healthcare system, aided and abetted by the massive funding cuts by Paul Martin? Or will he finally listen to Canadians and recognize that the combined threat of under-funding and growing corporate influence in our healthcare system could destroy it? ChrÃ©tien and Martin presided over cuts in health care in the 1990s, during which hospitals closed across Canada, nurse and doctor shortages grew critical, waiting lists for diagnostic services, specialists, surgeries, and therapeutic treatments increased exponentially, and private clinics and hospitals were opened. ChrÃ©tien took on big corporate money in the political financing arena. Will he have the courage to do the same in health care, or will he leave it to Paul Martin to finally turn over the system to the provincial privatizers like Klein, Campbell, Eves and Lord and their corporate friends? Based on the results of the recent First Ministers' Meeting on health care, the prospects are not hopeful. Roy Romanow, former Saskatchewan NDP premier appointed by ChrÃ©tien to chair a national commission in this area, listened to the concerns of Canadians from coast to coast to coast and laid out a solid, progressive blueprint for preserving and strengthening our medicare system. He heard no evidence that delivery of health care by private, for-profit corporate interests would improve the system. Our health critic at the time, Judy Wasylycia-Leis, set out our vision for improving the public medicare system. Among other things, Romanow recommended: *A major restoration of federal funding cut by Paul Martin over the last decade; *Adding diagnostic services like MRIs and CT scans as a sixth pillar of the Canada Health Act; *Confronting the dangers of international trade deals like the WTO, GATS, NAFTA's Chapter 11 and the proposed FTAA that harm the ability of governments to expand medicare into areas like home care and a national pharmaceutical drug plan; *Reviewing the impact of current drug patent laws on availability of affordable drugs, recognizing that the biggest increase in costs in the health care system now is in drugs, and that the profits of multinational drug companies are obscenely high; *Responding to the desperate, third world conditions of First Nations peoples both on and off reserve, and the special needs of northern and remote communities; Yet on every one of the above issues, Jean ChrÃ©tien and the federal Liberals ignored Romanow, ignored Canadians. Instead they listened to the privatizers in the Canadian Alliance, who support a two-tier U.S.-style system that would destroy medicare, their corporate friends in "Big Pharma," privatizers like Klein and Senator Michael Kirby and companies like his Extendicare. It was appalling to witness the spectacle of the Alliance giving ChrÃ©tien a standing ovation after the First Ministers' Meeting. ChrÃ©tien turned over billions in new funds with no strings attached -- no guarantees that the funds won't go to private, for-profit health care. Incredibly, he proposed that Don Mazankowski, king of the privatizers, chair the new Canada Health Council, and only backed down in the face of opposition from New Democrat Premiers Lorne Calvert and Gary Doer. ChrÃ©tien showed contempt for the special health needs of Northerners, and only backed down following pressure from the three territorial leaders and federal New Democrats. Much of the detail in the healthcare accord with the provinces remains to be worked out. The health reform package announced in the accord will require close supervision to ensure that accountability is strictly enforced, so that Canadians can be certain their tax dollars are being spent on public healthcare delivery with sufficient standards of quality and access. In May, the proposed Health Council is scheduled to be up and running, but at this point, we do not know what its mandate, principles, or composition will be. It is imperative that this council represent Canadian citizens, and that it be fully independent and arm's length from both the government and the corporate interests it typically represents. Conflict-of-interest guidelines, which the Liberals have historically had difficulty understanding, will be of the utmost importance here. By September, the provinces and the feds are scheduled to determine which services will be provided under the homecare program outlined in the accord. Once again, the key issue here will be ensuring that the services are adequate for public health, and are publicly delivered. That same month, the WTO will hold its next ministerial meeting in Cancun, to be followed closely by an FTAA ministerial meeting in Miami. In the dying days of ChrÃ©tien's leadership, these offer excellent opportunities for him to take an active stance in protection of public medicare from international businesses seeking to carve out private profits through free trade deals. ChrÃ©tien should also reverse Canada's shameful position on access to generic pharmaceuticals for developing countries under the TRIPS agreement at the WTO. Once again, the lives of people must have priority over corporate profits. Beyond these foreseeable events, ChrÃ©tien has an on-going opportunity to do the right thing for those in Canada who suffer from the worst government neglect in terms of health care -- the First Nations peoples. Aboriginal leaders were shut out of the First Ministers' meeting last month, and were also shut out of the resulting accord. The Liberals seem intent on ignoring the abysmal health circumstances of First Nations citizens, rather than entering into a workable partnership with them to develop accountable and relevant health care delivery in aboriginal communities. Canadians will watch in the coming months to see whether ChrÃ©tien abandons his agenda of corporate interests over public good, and works to rebuild a fully-funded, fully accountable, and fully public medicare system. This will, as Romanow made clear, require a fundamental shift in the way that the government administers health care. Health care will need to be seen as an inherent human right of all Canadians, indeed all global citizens, rather than a commodity to be exploited for private profit. New Democrats, led by Jack Layton, will honour the legacy of Tommy Douglas and hold you accountable. Listen to the people, Prime Minister ChrÃ©tien, and do the right thing. That would be a legacy to be proud of. NDP MP Svend Robinson is his party's healthcare critic and represents the federal riding of Burnaby-Douglas, B.C. The Hill Times

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