CBC News on-line
**Excerpt**
A Conservative government would establish and enforce guaranteed wait times for health-care services, Stephen Harper said on Friday.
He also moved to counter his critics by denying he intends to damage public medicare.
"There will be no private, parallel system," Harper told a campaign rally in Winnipeg.
The provinces and the federal government would gather to establish waiting times for various services, and would guarantee that they will be adhered to.
"We will reduce waiting times; we will hold governments accountable," he said.
A cancer patient, for example, should start radiation treatments no more than 10 working days after seeing a cancer specialist, Harper said. Patients should not wait more than 10 months for non-urgent hip and knee replacements.
A group of medical organizations called the Wait Times Alliance, suggested those as medically acceptable targets.
Harper's plan would allow patients to go to other provinces to get services their own province can't provide within the time limits.
This type of guarantee, Harper said, is "the only way that government can preserve the principles of the Canada Health Act and respect requirements of the Charter of Rights."
In September 2004, Prime Minister Paul Martin signed a $41-billion agreement with the provinces, which the Liberals touted as a fix for a generation.
"I will not call our approach a quick fix," Harper said. "It is a call to action. We are going to reduce wait times, we are going to hold governments accountable for their commitments, we are going to do what it takes to protect the public health-care system and respect the charter."
Harper said his party would work with the provinces to set other priorities for health care, including getting more doctors into the system by expanding educational programs.
