Garfield Dunlop is urging the province to help multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who are leaving the country for the so-called "liberation treatment."

The Simcoe North MPP tabled the following resolution in the legislature Wednesday:

"That in the opinion of this House, the Government of Ontario and its Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care should immediately develop a program to assist Ontario citizens suffering with multiple sclerosis or with chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency more commonly called CCSVI, the opportunity to receive venoplasty treatment here in Ontario."

Dunlop's hope is that the government will support conducting clinical trials of the procedure, which includes corrective angioplasty.

"Canadians are leaving Canada to have this treatment and they're coming back in a lot of cases with remarkable improvements to their health," Dunlop told QMI Agency. "We can no longer sit back and not do something."

He acknowledged there is a lot of debate around the procedure, but said there is "enough proof in the people who have come back from having this treatment."

"This is a bit of a strange one, this MS treatment," he said, "but it's caused such a stir in the MS community and it gives them hope."

MS patients use $20,000 to $40,000 worth of prescription drugs each year, he noted, adding many people live 40 to 60 years with the disease, and about 55,000 Canadians suffer from it.