Up to $10 million will be spent this year to get public input on the province's health-care system, the government says.

The government spends 42 per cent of its budget on health care, and that could grow to 70 per cent over the next decade, Premier Gordon Campbell said Thursday in launching the Conversation on Health Care program at B.C. Children's Hospital in Vancouver.

The government needs the public's input on how the government can curb and prioritize spending on health care "to improve public health services today and to protect public health services for future generations," Campbell said.

"No one is suggesting … that we don't have improvements to make," the premier said. "I think including people in this and looking at the long term is one of the critical components of sustaining health care."

NDP critic skeptical

However, NDP health critic Adrian Dix said the government has failed to follow through on earlier health-care commitments. He believes the process will be a one-sided conversation.

"Not a single [taxpayer has] suggested that a massive increase in government advertising — some of it, I think, [will be] probably misleading advertising — is what we need," Dix said.

"You don't need $8 million to have a public consultation. What you need is a premier to take the views of the public seriously."

NDP leader Carole James said real dialogue is good, but she wonders whether Campbell will listen to the public.

"I think conversations are important," she said. "But if it's just going to be another opportunity for the premier to go out and talk to British Columbians and do this as a PR exercise, then I think it's useless."

Citizens urged to speak out

James said she doesn't think the public is demanding more talk, although she hopes citizens will tell him exactly what they want from their health-care system.

Other critics, including the Hospital Employees' Union, the B.C. Nurses Union and the B.C. Health Coalition say the process will open the door for more private health providers in the province.

"We have more private clinics in B.C. than we have anywhere else in Canada, and I believe that this will be a push to looking at alternatives to a level kind of delivery," said Joyce Jones, co-chair of the B.C. Health Coalition. 

The premier said his only agenda is to hear the public's ideas as to how to protect the province's health system.

B.C. residents may contribute in an number of ways, including regional forums, through their MLAs and via the internet. The feedback will be summarized in a report and presented to the government next fall.