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Libby Davies talks about her winter sitting

February 8, 2012
Xtra! News
http://www.xtra.ca/blog/ottawa/post/2012/02/08/Libby-Davies-talks-about-her-winter-sitting.aspxQ: What do you have to look forward to over the winter sitting? A: Healthcare is my file right now, so that’s taking up a lot of my time, and it’s a very big file, and we have great NDP members on the committee, so we’re dividing it up and each specialising on certain things, so I’m very happy about that. We’re working as a team. We are going to be generating a bigger campaign around the future of medicare. Besides that, issues that come out of my riding that in some ways are very much related to healthcare, such as affordable housing and homelessness, the rights of sex workers, the impacts on drug users from the “war on drugs” – these are issues that are ongoing, whether it’s Insite, or what’s happening to sex workers in the court challenges that are happening right now. These are things that I’m paying attention to because they don’t get a lot of attention in parliament, and I feel like l have to be a strong advocate for those issues, and I want to be a strong advocate. Those things are also very much a part of the work that I do.
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Libby urges the government to limit trans fats

February 7, 2012 Question Period

Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP):
When it comes to putting the health of Canadians first, Conservatives are failing on every front.

Trans fats are the leading cause of heart disease and high cholesterol. This is something that particularly affects children. The House agreed to the NDP motion to regulate and limit this dangerous substance.

Why is the health minister now ignoring expert advice and siding yet again with industry, instead of acting to protect the health of Canadians?

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Libby supports regulations for safer cosmetic contact lenses

January 31, 2012 Speeches in Parliament

House of Commons
HANSARD
January 31, 2012

Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP):

Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to speak to Bill C-313.

I would like to thank the member for Sarnia—Lambton for bringing forward the bill. Some of my colleagues already spoke to the bill in the first hour of debate and signified our support for this legislation and that certainly continues. I do not know that there is more information to add in the second hour of debate, but it is important that we have a second hour of debate.

I want to begin my remarks by speaking more generally about what the bill raises in an important sense.

The health care system in Canada is huge. We have many health care concerns, such as natural health products and the mainstream health system itself. There is no doubt that we live in an age where more and more cosmetic-type therapies, aids and assistance, whether they are in drugs or other forms, are available on the market. One only has to look at television or any form of mass media to see the incredible amount of advertising and promotion of all kinds of products. One the one hand we can say that is a good thing in that consumers have lots of choice in this country. On the other hand, as Members of Parliament we hear stories from our constituents of things that have happened to people or complaints that have been made.

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Libby urges the Conservative government to work with the provinces to improve health care

January 30, 2012 Question Period

House of Commons
HANSARD
January 30, 2012

To view this question, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK_lr-PxKNk

Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives failed in their commitment to the 2004 health accords, including expanding home care, reforming primary care, and getting prescription drug costs under control.

Now the Prime Minister has made the situation worse by telling the premiers that he will unilaterally reduce the Canada Health Transfer.

Fixing our health care system must be done by collaborating with the provinces. That is what Canadians expect.

Why is the government slamming the door in their faces?

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NDP MPs ask Health Committee to review federal health care funding

January 26, 2012 Press Release

OTTAWA – New Democrats have convened a meeting today of the Standing Committee on Health to address the urgent need to define the federal government’s role in future health care funding.

“We are at a critical crossroads in the history of Medicare in this country. Last week in Victoria, the premiers made it clear that they expect more from the federal government. But Conservatives have failed to take the lead in helping plan – and fund – future public health care in Canada,” said New Democrat Health critic Libby Davies. “Provinces, and Canadians, want action now. And the NDP is responding to that call.”

NDP members of the Health Committee submitted a letter to the Clerk of the Standing Committee on Health on January 23, 2012, demanding an urgent meeting to discuss this issue.

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Health funding issue bringing some MPs back early

January 24, 2012
CBC News
Health funding issue bringing some MPs back earlyHealth funding issue bringing some MPs back earlyThe House of Commons doesn't resume sitting until next week but MPs on the health committee will be coming to Ottawa early for a special meeting on the government's controversial health-care funding plan. The NDP used a procedural tactic to request a Thursday meeting and will use it try to force the committee to undertake a study of the new funding plan that was abruptly announced by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in December. "We think that this is a very critical and emerging issue that needs to be addressed by the health committee," the NDP's health critic and deputy leader, Libby Davies, said in an interview.
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Alberta would be $810-million winner under new health scheme

January 18, 2012
The Chronicle-Herald
Alberta would be $810-million winner under new health scheme VICTORIA — The Harper government’s health plan is often said to divide booming western provinces and poorer eastern provinces. But, more accurately, it pits Alberta against everyone else. Alberta would be handed about $810 million more under Ottawa’s new per capita transfer model if it were in place today, calculations by The Chronicle Herald show. Every other province would lose out...The federal NDP has gone so far as to say Prime Minister Stephen Harper designed the system to pit the provinces against each other in a divide-and-conquer strategy. "This is a very calculating prime minister," said federal NDP health critic Libby Davies. "I’m sure he knew full well that just slapping down one formula was going to create divisions. I just don’t think there’s any two ways about that."
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