Tuesday February 19, 2002 - Bloc Opposition Motion

  Mr. Bill Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, NDP): Mr. Speaker, today we are debating a very strange motion.

[English]
  I do not know how to say weird in French, but what we have here is a motion in which the Bloc finds itself in strange alliance with both the government and the Alliance. It has given the Liberals far too much credit by suggesting that the Liberals have a national vision of health care which they want to impose on the rest of the country--and here is where it gets really strange--through the preliminary report of the Romanow commission.

  I have not read it from cover to cover but it seems to me what I remember of the Romanow commission report was that it laid out a bunch of options for dealing with the problems in health care. How laying out options can be construed as imposing a particular vision on the provinces is strange to me.

Monday November 3, 2003

Mr. Bill Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, NDP): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance who said that the Liberals respect their undertakings. I think I am quoting him directly. I would hope that he would be prepared at some point to say that about the commitment that was made to VIA Rail, if they respect all their undertakings despite what messages might be coming from other places.

November 2, 2004 - Take Note Debate

Hon. Bill Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, NDP): Mr. Chair, perhaps I could begin by saying that I think it is a measure of our level of concern and commitment about this issue that, while the rest of the world is riveted on what is happening in the United States, we are here in the House of Commons debating compensation for hepatitis C victims.

Before I continue, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Burnaby-New Westminster.

What the minister has said tonight is welcomed. It shows progress and an openness in dealing with this issue which was not there in the previous Parliament. It would be sufficient in a way if it were just related to the surplus in the fund and the fact that the government is now able to contemplate compensating more people because the initial numbers were either mistaken or exaggerated, however one wants to describe them. However, I also think there is a real willingness on the part of the minister and I hope ultimately the cabinet and the government to see this as something which is the right thing to do in any event.

The real test of that will be if everything goes as we would hope and there is a need for more funds than are in the current fund to compensate all those who may yet come forward once compensation is made available for those outside the 1986-1990 period. It seems to me that the test, ultimately, for the government is whether this is being done 100% on principle or to some degree because there is this extra money, it makes sense and it is morally admirable to use it for these purposes rather than to have it go unused.

We certainly see a difference in the context. I remember, as some hon. members will, the day we had the vote, and it was a matter of confidence. We had a vote on an opposition day motion today and the government lost the motion, but it was not a matter of confidence. It was a matter of the House expressing its will on a particular matter. However, the prime minister of that day said no, that it was not just a matter of the House expressing its will. He said that it was a matter of confidence, and he made Liberal members of Parliament vote against their consciences on this.

There is no point in beating up the current Minister of Health about this, but that is what we experienced in a previous Parliament. I think he might have taken this into account when he decided whether he would engage in a new political incarnation, but that is another matter.

In any event, we have a new Parliament. The government has a chance to prove that it really is different than the last Parliament. We already see signs of that. We see Liberals freed from the authority of Jean Chr

May 12, 2004

Hon. Bill Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, NDP): Mr. Speaker, it is curious to see the official opposition concerned about high gas prices; this is the first time in 25 years. I remember a Tory government that fell because it jacked the price of gas up so high. My question for the Prime Minister--

Some hon. members: Oh, oh.

May 7, 2004

Hon. Bill Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, NDP): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health.

The Minister of Health says that the Liberal policy on health care is no secret. That is certainly the case now but it was not always so when the Liberals were trying to keep their real policy on health care from Canadians. The Minister of Health revealed some of it a few weeks ago, and now we see more of the connection between Liberals and private delivery of medicare.

May 11, 2004 - NDP Opposition Motion

Mrs. Bev Desjarlais (Churchill, NDP) moved: That this House condemn the private for-profit delivery of health care that this government has allowed to grow since 1993.

A blind eye to private medicine

Jack Layton - Comment - National Post - Monday September 20

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There are two ways to judge the recent health agreement reached among the federal government, the provinces and the territories. One is on substance: A fair analysis suggests the funding agreement will improve our health care system in the foreseeable future. The First Ministers are to be congratulated. I and Bill Blaikie, the NDP health critic, attended the summit as observers, and our conversations with premiers of all political stripes showed a dedication that is praiseworthy.

Wednesday April 27, 2004

Hon. Bill Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, NDP): Mr. Speaker, if the Liberals are looking for a wedge issue with the Conservatives, perhaps they should look to something other than health, because yesterday the Minister of Health revealed what the NDP has been saying all along, that there is not one whit of difference between the Liberals and the Conservatives when it comes to the place of for profit delivery of health care in this country.

Tuesday November 23, 2004

 

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Hon. Bill Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, NDP): Mr. Chair, I will try to keep my questions brief so that the minister can answer.

 

June 22, 2005

Hon. Bill Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, NDP): Mr. Speaker, my second question is on a completely different topic. It has to do with health care. The question is for the Deputy Prime Minister, also a former minister of health.

She may be aware that the doctor who successfully challenged the ban on private insurance in Quebec is now being feted by conservatives in America. He is probably being quietly feted by Conservatives here, but they are not as open about it. He has gone to the United States and he says: