• CTF releases open letter to Premiers on eve of annual conference
• Taxpayers urge Premiers to recommend modernization of the Canada Health Act
• Health care debate must be about "ideas" not "invective rhetoric"

Letter

OTTAWA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today released an open letter to Canada's 13 premiers and territorial leaders who will gather this week in Vancouver, for their annual conference.

Time to elevate the debate: A crash-cart of new ideas
"This week's meeting affords our provincial and territorial leaders the opportunity to set the appropriate tone for this year's, all health care, all the time, debate," stated CTF federal director Walter Robinson. "All stakeholders must leave the stale old debates of public vs. private, left vs. right and Canada vs. the U.S. in the history books where they deserve to be unceremoniously buried. Instead, they should advocate for quality, choice, sustainability, and evidence-based medicine in tackling the health care reform file. These represent a crash-cart of new ideas."

The Canada Health Act : It must be modernized
"In our acclaimed health care research and position paper, we clearly lay out the case for the modernization of the Canada Health Act," added Robinson. "The existing five principles must be replaced with six new ones. Universality must be properly defined and include components of portability, comprehensiveness and public administration. Public administration must be replaced with public governance, a truer reflection of where the system is going. New principles of quality, sustainability, accountability and choice must also be added."

A national issue: Jurisdictional squabbles will not be tolerated

In his letter Mr. Robinson writes:

Health care is a national issue. According to a CTF survey and national opinion polls, it is also seen by a majority of Canadians as an issue of shared jurisdiction. Canadian taxpayers will not tolerate any more finger pointing and blame shifting between their senior levels of government.

The Premiers must put ideas and action plans in the window this week," concluded Robinson. "Invective rhetoric and financial whining would constitute a great disservice to Canadians."