"When I think about our healthcare system, I don't think of it with the perspective of a politician. I think of it as a father, a son, a husband and a patient myself," said Tory. "I don't think about dollars and equipment, but of patients and providers. I believe we can manage our system better, we can eliminate waste and we can drive dollars to patient care."

Tory was in Hamilton today to tour the Juravinski Innovation Tower at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton and to deliver a speech to the Canadian Club in Hamilton. During his remarks, Tory said he will significantly increase healthcare investments so that by the fourth year of a PC Government, spending will be $8.5 billion more than current annual spending by the McGuinty Liberals.

Tory outlined the four main principles that will guide a PC Government to improving Ontario's healthcare system. They are:

• Improve access to timely, universal healthcare services; >li>Eliminate wasteful spending and making significant, reliable, responsible and growing investments in healthcare spending;
• Improve care by working with all of our partners and seeking out the energy, resources, ideas and capital of innovators from across the healthcare field;
• Increase respect and cooperation with patients and providers to make Ontario's healthcare system better.

"Between new drug therapies, innovative technology and an aging and growing population, healthcare costs are going to increase," said Tory. "Instead of more talk and phony tax grabs from the McGuinty Liberals, we will invest more in healthcare - more for long-term care, drug therapies and high-tech equipment, and more for health-care providers themselves. We will do all of this without relying on the McGuinty Liberals so-called 'health tax'."

Tory continued, "A PC Government will eliminate this regressive tax and continue to invest in healthcare, making use of growing budget surpluses and eliminating wasteful McGuinty Liberal spending."

"Ontario's healthcare system is a complex challenge and improving it will not be easy. It requires strong, thoughtful leadership and clear principles to guide us," said Tory. "If elected, a PC Government is committed to making Ontario's healthcare system the envy of Canada and the world."

• Timely, universal access
• The need for significant, reliable, responsible growth in healthcare spending
• The constant search for ways to improve care
• Respect for patients and respect for healthcare providers

Today in Ontario…

• More than one million people in Ontario, including 130,000 children, do not have a family doctor, are forced to seek treatment in crowded emergency rooms and walk-in clinics and don't receive the on-going professional healthcare they require.
• 138 communities in Ontario are now designated as "under-serviced" for family doctors - up from 129 in July-Sept. 2003.
• Too many Ontario families do not have a family doctor and face extraordinary wait times for important medical procedures.
• More than 18,000 seniors in Ontario are sitting on waiting lists for long-term care.
• 35,000 long-term care residents - close to 50% of the entire resident population - continue to live in substandard homes and fail to support seniors with respect and dignity.
• In March, in the Belleville area, close to 1000 people were waiting for beds in long-term care homes and more than 70 of those people were taking up hospital beds in the interim.
• Dalton McGuinty has increased total government spending by $22 billion since 2003 and Ontario fails to see or feel the benefits of that 32% increase in spending over 4 years. This increase in spending has funded such initiatives as:
  • changing the logo and name of the lottery corporation
  • reckless year-end spending with no application process, no documentation and no accountability
  • paying for Dalton's private flights from Toronto to Hamilton - a trip that could be made by car within an hour.

What a John Tory PC Government will do…

We will improve healthcare in Ontario that follows four specific principles and is guided by a strong commitment to a universally accessible, publicly funded healthcare system. A discussion of each of the four principles follows:

Timely, universal access

• We will oppose two-tier medicine
• We will ensure that, under a John Tory PC Government, the only card Ontario patients will need to get the very best care available in their OHIP card - not a credit card
• We will ensure that universality is real; without access to a family physician, there can be no universal access.

Significant, reliable, responsible growth in healthcare spending.

• We will provide significant annual increases in funding for healthcare. By the fourth year of our mandate, our total annual funding will be $8.5 billion more than current spending by the Liberals.
• We will invest more in healthcare without relying on Dalton McGuinty's so-called "health tax" that penalizes low-income families much more than higher income families.
• With normal economic growth and the elimination of wasteful Liberal spending, we will be able to eliminate the dishonest so-called "health tax."
• John Tory's minimum funding commitment provides for realistic growth in healthcare expenditures to reflect long-range planning research undertaken by the Ministry of Finance in 2005.
• In its 2005 report Toward 2025: Assessing Ontario's Long-Term Outlook, Ontario Ministry of Finance used the assumption that healthcare would grow on average by 5.1 per cent annually during the 2005-06 to 2009-10 period, and 5.8 per cent during the 2010-11 to 2014-15 period. Our plan reflects the research undertaken by the Ministry of Finance in its long-range report, and plans for a gradual increase in healthcare growth rates in later years.