The 1999 Speech from the Throne:
Health and Quality Care

October 12, 1999

Quality, affordable health care is a cornerstone of our quality of life.

The Canadian health care system is a justifiable source of pride for Canadians - an expression of our values of compassion, sharing and caring - and a source of Canadian strength in the global marketplace.

It is one of our proudest national achievements. Our single-payer, publicly financed system is the best.

Advances in technology, research and information are opening tremendous new opportunities for improving the health and well-being of citizens.

Canadians expect their governments to work together to ensure the health care system is modern and sustainable. We have shown our steadfast commitment to keeping it that way.

We have shown leadership in the areas of funding, research, innovation and giving Canadians better access to health information.

And we have worked constructively - as a partner - with provinces, territories and other interested parties in meeting the new needs of the future and responding to emerging health care issues - in a spirit of openness and pragmatism.

A Record of Achievement

In the 1999 Budget, we made our largest single new investment since coming to office by committing an additional $11.5 billion over five years to the provinces and territories, specifically for health care.

We also set aside close to $1.4 billion over the next three years for improving health information systems, promoting health-related research and innovation, improving First Nations and Inuit health services and doing more to prevent health problems from occurring.

The centrepiece of our innovation effort is the setting aside of more than $500 million over three years to create the Canadian Institutes of Health Research - which will foster state of the art health research across regions and disciplines.

The Prime Minister himself Chaired the National Forum on Health, which brought together Canada's wealth of talent and knowledge in the health care field to assess how the system can best respond to emerging health care issues.

We implemented key recommendations of the Forum including:

• creating a Health Transition Fund to help provinces launch pilot projects to investigate new and better approaches to health care;

• establishing a new Canada Health Information Service to give health care providers timely access to quality health information; and,

• boosting funding for The Community Action Program for Children and the Canada Prenatal Nutrition program.

We have also renewed the Canadian Blood System as well as our national AIDS and breast cancer strategies

1999 SFT Commitments

We will build on our record by:

• Supporting partners in testing innovations in home care, pharmacare and integrated service delivery over the next two years, before considering what further significant investments are needed in health;

• Build a modern health information system to make health information more accessible to professionals and citizens;

• Tabling legislation to create the Canadian Institutes of Health Research;

• Strengthening Canada's food safety program, take further action on the health risks presented by pesticides and table legislation to modernize health protection;

• Strengthening the federal government's own research and science capacity to protect the health and safety of Canadians; and,

• Addressing health problems in Aboriginal communities.