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By Michael Butler | April 15, 2016

Yesterday was the first meeting of the Commons Standing Committee on Health to study how Canada might create a national pharmacare program. A national drug plan was first recommended in a the 1964 Royal Commission on Health Services. Today, Canada remains "the only country in the world with a medicare system that excludes prescription drugs as if they are not part of the health-care system."

It came as a major disappointment this week that Canada's Health Minister, Jane Philpott, indicated pharmacare is not part of her mandate. It has been reported that the minister believes pharmacare is too costly and she has highlighted it will not be introduced in this Parliament.

April 28, 2016 - 9:37am

This past week the co-founder of Bloodwatch.org, Kat Lanteigne, was in Halifax as part of a cross-country educational tour. Lanteigne’s trip included a public event co-sponsored by the NS Health Network and Council of Canadians as well a press conference with the NS-NDP Health Critic, Dave Wilson. Lanteigne and Wilson urged the Premier Stephen McNeil and the NS Liberals to vote on and pass Bill 43 - the Voluntary Blood Donations Act. “Nova Scotians do not want to see corporation buying and selling blood and plasma. Paying for plasma is a slippery slope” said Wilson.

April 14, 2016

Yesterday was the first meeting of the Commons Standing Committee on Health to study how Canada might create a national pharmacare program.  First recommended in a the1964 Royal Commission on Health Services, Canada remains, “the only country in the world with a medicare system that excludes prescription drugs as if they are not part of the health-care system.” Roughly 52 years later, after 11 liberal governments and 6 Conservative governments, Canadians remain with a fragmented system with inequitable drug coverage. As it stands 10 per cent of Canadians have no practical form of ongoing coverage and it is has been revealed that as drug prices continue their meteoric rise approximately 1 in 5 Canadians (previous data had shown 1 in 10), “say that they themselves or someone in their household resorted to saving money this past year by not buying drugs ordered by a doctor or by skimping on doses. That’s a prescription for ill health.”

The reason an aging population costs provinces is because of the way we have structured health care. What the studies suggest is that we should be building more public long-term care homes and investing in home care professionals. We know that by keeping people out of the hospital- those who don’t need to be there and can have all of their needs met at home- is not only better and more preferable for the patient, but it is much more cost-efficient for health care.

Canada’s Best Kept Secret Revealed: Public health care gives Canada an economic advantage – despite the high dollar

This analysis neglects an important point: As the recent United Auto Workers-General Motors collective agreement reminds us, Canadian companies don’t have to deal with the health care headaches of our neighbours – or with the costs. Indeed, the fact that Canadian companies, large and small, don’t have to offer health benefits to compete for the most talented and productive workers explains in large part why we are still largely competitive in the NAFTA era – despite our skyrocketing dollar.

May 9, 2015

The Council of Canadians opposes the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). The Toronto Star explains, "The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a proposed free trade agreement between 12 countries on the Pacific Ocean: Canada, the U.S., Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Vietnam, Singapore, Peru, New Zealand, Chile and Brunei. ...The TPP covers a wide range of non-tariff concerns, including intellectual property, food safety, and labour standards. ...The negotiations have been conducted in secret. Drafts have been leaked of TPP sections on three significant topics: intellectual property, the environment, and 'investor-state dispute settlement' — common but controversial rules that give companies the right to go to arbitration panels, outside the regular courts, to challenge laws they believe violate their rights under the deal."

May 8, 2015

OTTAWA - Hot on the heels of the Conservative defeat in Alberta, Maude Barlow is calling on Canadians to send the federal Tories packing as well. Her new report, Broken Covenant: How Stephen Harper Set out to Silence Dissent and Curtail Democratic Participation, outlines the damage done to all aspects of Canada’s democracy under Harper’s watch.

May 28, 2015

That was because, as noted on the CUPE webpage, "CUPE 1252 is having a rally in front of the Legislative Assembly at noon on May 28 to protest the cuts in health care."

The New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal reported, "Norma Robinson, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees council that bargains on behalf of more than 10,000 New Brunswick hospital support workers, expects layoffs this year..." That's because, "Horizon Health Network [a provincial health authority that delivers medical care to the central and southern portions of the province] will resume [discussions] at some point with a private company interested in providing services to some New Brunswick hospitals." That contracting out could mean that food and nutrition, portering and housekeeping employees would have to apply to work for the new contractor.

May 18, 2015 - 9:45am The Council of Canadians opposes the use of for-profit, user-pay Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to diagnose medical conditions. Earlier this month, we spoke out against the Saskatchewan government's new legislation that would allow more user-pay MRI scans in that province. Today, the CBC reports on a British Columbia resident, Peter Peczek, who suffered a near fatal stroke after a private MRI clinic failed to detect his illness.

CBC reports, "Peczek said the emergency room physician told him he couldn't have an MRI done right away in the public hospital. ...[The attending doctor] referred Peczek for a scan at the private local MRI clinic instead. ...Peczek paid $1,300 at Image One in Kelowna. Radiologist Casey McMillan interpreted the scan on behalf of the clinic and concluded there were 'no significant findings'. ...The radiologist who read Peczek's MRI for the private clinic also works in a public hospital. ...Go Public discovered that several doctors who work in or manage public hospital systems also own or work for private MRI clinics in B.C." The article comments, "Peczek's suffering has ... raised broader concerns over mixing public and private-for-pay health care — including possible conflicts of interest and errors by physicians who spread themselves too thin."

May 19, 2015 - 10:22am At least nine Council of Canadians chapters will be participating in the Canadian Health Coalition's National Spring Constituency Lobby for Public Health Care this week (May 19-22).

May 19, 2015

I am writing this letter as I was extremely disturbed by your Black Press editorial (Campbell River Mirror May 1, 2015) entitled ‘Less will be the norm’. I have since discovered that this same editorial was published simultaneously in a number of Black Press local newspapers. The anonymous writer of this editorial takes the stance that public health care is unaffordable and we should be supporting the expansion of private health care facilities. In my view, this statement does not reflect the viewpoint of a majority of Canadians.

Some of the increasing costs of public health care can be chalked up to the increasing use of Public Private Partnerships in building hospitals and health care facilities –

The Council of Canadians Kamloops chapter is lobbying federal party candidates to support public health care. Yesterday, chapter activist Anita Strong and allies met with Bill Sundhu, the NDP candidate for the federal riding of Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo. Today, there will be a meeting with Steve Powrie, the Liberal candidate for that riding. They had hoped to also meet with Cathy McLeod, the Conservative MP for the riding, but she was reportedly too busy to meet with them. These meetings are part of the Canadian Health Coalition's National Spring Constituency Lobby for Public Health Care.

April 23, 2015

As the October 19, 2015 federal election looms, the Council of Canadians will be in communities across Canada encouraging people to 'Go vote!'. We will hold town hall meetings, campus-based events, distribute thousands of Voter’s Guides and give people the tools and information they need to inspire democratic participation in their communities.

Sep 22, 2015

Credit to Michael Butler, health care campaigner at the Council of Canadians. Last week the Council of Canadians and CUPE Saskatchewan went on a five city tour to raise awareness about the increasing privatization of public health care in the province. Sadly, in the heartland of medicare we are seeing, “increased creeping privatization across the province in all health care sectors. What’s happening is Brad Wall knows that people value universal health care in its heartland of Saskatchewan. There’s been backdoor cuts and policy and legislative changes. The founding principle of medicare – need and equity – trumping ability to pay is being eroded.”

June 28, 2015

The Council of Canadians London chapter recently participated in a regional day of action protest against health care cuts and privatization. CTV reports, "About 200 people gathered to demand an end to health care cuts outside MPP Deb Matthews' office on Piccadilly Street Friday afternoon." AM 980 adds, "Demonstrators brought signs, balloons, sang songs and chanted despite Matthews not being there to witness the event. The rally, led by the Ontario Health Coalition, is in response to cuts being made by the Liberal government, which is having a detrimental effect on London’s hospitals."

June 25, 2015

The Council of Canadians held a "Time for Change" public forum in Courtenay last night. More than 300 people were attendance for the event at the Florence Filberg Centre.

September 9, 2015

Please take a moment to review this excellent new multimedia project  documenting nine years of immigration changes by the federal government.  In nine well laid out sections, the project shows how Canada has been closing its borders to migrants. http://www.neverhome.ca/

October 6, 2015

The news yesterday that the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations have concluded is one that should worry Canadians, especially in regards to the relationship between intellectual property rights (IP) and pharmaceuticals (the text of the TPP includes 29 chapters, only five of which are about trade). Even the likes of Paul Krugman have changed their tune and stated, “this is not a trade agreement. It’s about intellectual property and dispute settlement; the big beneficiaries are likely to be pharma companies and firms that want to sue governments.” Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz recently added that, “you will hear much about the importance of the TPP for 'free trade.' The reality is that this is an agreement to manage its members’ trade and investment relations – and to do so on behalf of each country’s most powerful business lobbies. Make no mistake: It is evident from the main outstanding issues, over which negotiators are still haggling, that the TPP is not about “free” trade.”