Senator Downe: As you know, under the regulations of the forces, you have the ministerial authority to instruct the Canadian Armed Forces, as with other circumstances prescribed by the ministerial regulation team. You could do that right away.

My concern is that the Ontario government, for example, gives priority, but priority needs availability on the other end. There are simply not enough doctors and nurses in this country to assist. Your authority, as minister, could change that to duplicate what is done in the United States, where members’ families could be covered by the Canadian Armed Forces medical system. Is that something that you’re considering?

[Translation]

Hon. Percy E. Downe: Thank you, minister. The Canadian Armed Forces are short-staffed by 16,000 members. Retention and recruitment shortfalls are the worst they’ve ever been. Family consideration is an important fact for many members. I’ve been contacted by members of the Canadian Armed Forces who are concerned that, given the current health care accessibility crisis in Canada, medical support for their immediate family members will be next to impossible to obtain if they are posted to new locations in Canada.

As you’re well aware, members of the forces have access to military medical personnel, including doctors and nurses, but their family members don’t. Therefore, when they’re posted to a new location, their quality of medical care will continue, but their family members have to join a waiting list for a family doctor that, in many provinces, can be thousands of names long. For example, the wait-list for a family doctor in Prince Edward Island is over 30,000 names.

In light of this, and the impact it is surely having on recruitment and retention, why is your department not extending the Canadian Armed Forces medical coverage to members’ families, like they do in the United States?