Petitioning for health care

Dorval resident Murray Levine and Lachine-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Liberal MP Marlene Jennings are combining their forces, asking the Canadian government to skip out on collecting the GST from hospitals this year and instead donate that money to hospital foundations for the latter to purchase needed medical equipment. "I would hope that there would be (a positive government response," Jennings told The Chronicle<@$p>.

The idea came to Levine a few weeks ago, he said, as he was recovering from a stay at Montreal General Hospital. As soon as he had it, he got in touch with Jennings. "I asked her for a plan of action," he said.

At first, Jennings said she tried to have the measures included in the 2009 federal budget, getting in touch with the Finance and Health Ministries. "That didn't work out," she added, which is why she turned to a petition instead.

According to Jennings, a petition could go a long way toward showing the federal government this is an important matter for a lot of Canadians.

She added the idea of tabling a private member's bill on the matter would be a little more difficult, since there are many MPs who have their own bills already introduced ahead of her. "In the meantime, there's the petition," she said.

Lakeshore General Hospital spokesperson Louis-Pascal Cyr said this kind of arrangement would net the hospital foundation about $109 000. "I don't know what kind of money I'll need (in the future)," asked how the Pointe Claire institution could spend that money, but he said recent purchases included equipment like an echo-cardiograph machine and a mammogram.

As the federal government did not return The Chronicle's requests for comment as of press time, it is unclear how it would respond to the request. "I think they're more concerned with (helping) industry," Levine said.

Jennings said the government's response should take into the consideration the fact that healthcare is a priority to a lot of Canadians.

Two weeks ago, the Canadian Medical Association Journal blasted the government for what it saw as a drastic cut in this year's budget toward health and sciences, citing, among other things, a $147.9 million cut to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and two research councils, down from its $928.6 million last year.