February 6, 2002

We welcome the interim report of the Romanow Commission.

The themes of the report - values, funding, quality, access, and leadership - will be useful in guiding the nation-wide consultations the Commission will undertake with all Canadians on options for the future. And we encourage Canadians to become involved.

We look forward to the advice and recommendations that will flow from this national dialogue.

We are committed to ensuring that our health care system is sustainable and remains true to the principles of the Canada Health Act.

While the consultations proceed, we will continue to work cooperatively with the provinces and territories, health care providers and health care users on health care reform and renewal.

We all have the same goal – to ensure that Canadians have access to timely and high-quality health care.

Indeed, we are pressing ahead on issues that need attention now.

In September 2000, we achieved unanimous agreement on a Health Action Plan - a plan with funding and a blue print to address short and medium term health care issues.

Under the Plan we made $18.9 billion in new health care funding available to the provinces. And another $2.3 billion was allocated for medical equipment like MRI machines, information technology and primary health care reform.

This funding that was fully protected in Budget 2001 despite the economic slowdown and will see the federal contribution to health care reach an all-time high.

We've also taken steps with our provincial and territorial partners to improve pharmaceutical management, so that drugs covered by public benefit plans deliver top therapeutic benefits in the most cost-effective way.

We've made investments in electronic health records and tele-health, that will help health care teams deliver better care and improve care in remote and rural regions.

And this September, governments across Canada will for the first time report to citizens about health system performance using a set of common indicators - a concrete step toward more accountability to Canadians for how health budgets are spent.

The findings of the Romanow Commission will help us address medium and long-term challenges in a way that ensures all Canadians have access to the high quality health care that is their right.