RENEWING THE FEDERAL-PROVINCIAL HEALTH ACCORD Stephen Harpers Government is committed to a universal public health care system and

the Canada Health Act, and the right of provinces to deliver health care within their jurisdictions. As promised, we have implemented the 10-year federal-provincial Health Accord, providing predictable transfer payments to assist the provinces and territories in strengthening health care services for Canadians. To help ensure the new funding would be used effectively, we worked collaboratively with the provinces and territories to develop a Patient Wait Times Guarantee for essential medical treatments. The Wait Times Alliance has reported progress in reducing wait times for radiation/oncology treatments and cataract and bypass surgeries. But they have also reported that more work is needed to reduce wait times for other treatments and diagnostic procedures. And there remains a need for more timely and uniform reporting from the provinces and territories in order to measure progress. Canadians expect and deserve timely access to high-quality health care services. To help achieve that goal, we will v . t better reporting from the provinces and territories to measure progress, and guarantees covering additional medically necessary procedures. In the spirit of open federalism, when renewing the Health Accord we will v . Recognizing asymmetrical federalism, we will follow the precedent of a wt t regarding the implementation of the renewed Health Accord. 27 In our discussions we will