Wednesday, March 6, 1968

slight mention of whether the Federal Government, in fact, was involved or not. If it was, this wasn’t one of the features that they stressed. Then after the election they started to renege. Last winter the Premier told us, rather apologetically, that because of this and that, Medicare would not be effective on July 1, 1967, as pro- mised but it would be for sure on July 1, 1968. Now, according to the Guardian on Jan. 15, 1968, it has this to say, “Now Campbell says, no money for Island Medical Care’.” This was the headline which reported his speech to the 6th District Queens Liberal Association. Another heading for another article a few days later was this. “Island might not have enough M.D.’s for Medicare!” Continuing to quote, “There possibly aren’t enough doctors in the Province to carry out a medical program ef- fectively even if Prince Edward Island could afford to implement the program,” says the Hon. Keir Clark, Minister of Health.

Hon. Alex B. Campbell: A good man.

Lloyd G. MacPhail: He certainly is and he should show it. This, Mr. Speaker. this type of irresponsibility typifies the Government’s lack of fulfillment on their has- tily made promises for which they had given no thought and had no plans for im- plementation. On Dec. 14. .. .

M. Lorne Bonnell: Is that a quote?

Lloyd G. MacPhail: 1967, Dr. John Gillis told the Queens County Federation of Agri- culture’s annual meeting, which was held a couple of days earlier on Dec. 12, he was speaking on Medicare and he had this to say, “The patient load of each doctor will increase by 30% or more” and he explained further that, “It would take a long time to train enough doctors even if an immediate recruiting campaign were launched and if additional medical training facilities were made available.” This medical care program, of course, becomes even more of a necessity since we read that the Prince Edward Island Medical Society, I think, on Dec. 16th announced that beginning Jan. lst that they were going to have a revision of their schedule of fees. It doesn’t say which way this revision is going to go but I have a gretty good idea which way it went and I think you have too, Mr. Speaker. Anyway, I got away from Dr. Gillis there for a minute. He went on in that speech which he made to say that after the high school student decides to study medicine it takes ten years to train a general practitioner and fifteen years to train a specialist and this being so, the time is well in the future when medical profession of today feel they will have enough manpower to meet the challenge that universal Medicare would provide. So, Mr. Speaker, do you not see that this will provide the grounds for another announce- ment in a years time for a further delay? In the meantime, the people of this Province will not have universal Medicare, but even more unfortunate, as taxpayers of Canada, we will pay, and we will continue to pay Canada’s part of the cost of the program for the provinces where Medicare is accepted. Even in those provinces it will not be universal, portable or national, the three main characteristics it was to possess. Mr. Speaker, Medicare’s emasculated implementation matches closely the picture of the divided cabinet that sponsored it. The good people of Prince Edward Island deserve something better than the runaround they’ve been receiving from this “do nothing” Provincial Government who seem totally bereft of ideas and totally devoid of action. Mr. Speaker, you remember on July 13, 1966, when Prime Minister Pearson called at Summerside to congratulate Premier-elect, Campbell, he is reported to have said, “We cannot stay too long. We’re in a hurray to get back as we’re putting through Medicare tonight.” That was July 13, 1966. and as far as Prince Edward Island is concerned the night has not yet arrived and we know not when or even whether it will ever come. (Applause) We hear much about the division of opinion and inconsistencies of the Federal Liberal Government. Let’s look at a few right here in our Provincial Liberal Government. We don’t have to go to Ottawa to find them. Let’s take, for instance, our very pleasant friend over there, one of the Premier’s right hand men, who sits two seats to his left.

Hon. Alex B. Campbell: A good man. Lloyd G. MacPhail: He’s a good man. I have kind words for him. I wish I could have the same for some of the rest. Now it is his duty to prov1de money to various

Ministers to run their Departments and their programs. Of course, the results. indi- cate that either he isn’t giving them enough money or that they are not usmg it

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