Healthcare talks between Trudeau and the premiers are set for Tuesday. Here’s a snapshot of how we got to this point, and what they’re going to be talking about.
OTTAWA - On Tuesday in Ottawa, Canada’s 13 premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will sit around the same table in person for the first time since COVID-19 hoping to find a path toward a new long-term health-care funding deal.
“There’s been continual demands for an increase in the CHT although I’ve never seen quite as large a demand for an increase as this one,” said Gregory Marchildon, a professor emeritus at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. In 1995, then-finance minister Paul Martin, desperate to turn around Canada’s debt problems, slashed the health and social transfer by 20 per cent, followed by a 15 per cent cut in 1996. Some provinces have said their health systems have never recovered.
An attempt in 2016 to negotiate a new CHT deal mostly failed, resulting in one-on-one agreements between Ottawa and the provinces and territories to share $11.5 billion over 10 years, beginning in 2017-18, to improve mental-health and home care.In the split jurisdictional world Canada’s governments live in, provinces are the ones who control health-care delivery. So for the most part, the federal government helps fund it and the provinces get to say how it’s spent.
The 2017 deals on mental-health and home care will be a bit of a model. Those deals saw Ottawa promise $11.5 billion over 10 years for the two areas, but in exchange provinces had to agree to a common set of principles and goals, and to report results. In his first public overture to open negotiations with provinces on health funding in November, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told provincial health ministers the federal government would increase the Canada Health Transfer if provinces agree to work together on a “world-class health data system for Canada.”
The same is true of tracking surgical backlogs and other information about how well, or not, the health system is working. “We need those technology systems to be able to talk to one another, to be able to to move data back and forth or to send messages back and forth in some way,” she said. Ontario and Quebec have indicated a willingness to work with Ottawa on data, though other provinces have been less firm about it.Provincial leaders have been able to agree with Ottawa on the need to reform Canada’s long-term care homes, though exactly how to accomplish that is still up for debate.
Meanwhile, residents were isolated from the outside world and workers struggled to provide basic care and ensure dignity. Several provinces have already announced plans to increase the number of hours of care residents receive per day and build new spaces for the growing number of seniors who are living longer with more serious cognitive and physical impairments.
Still, there is plenty of work that needs to be done if provinces have a hope of meeting the standards, especially when it comes to the workforce.
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Five things to know about health-care talks Tuesday between Trudeau, premiersOn Tuesday in Ottawa, Canada's 13 premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will sit around the same table in person for the first time since COVID-19 hoping to find a path toward a new long-term health-care funding deal.
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Five things to know about health-care talks Tuesday between Trudeau, premiersOn Tuesday in Ottawa, Canada's 13 premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet, hoping to figure out a new health-care funding deal.
Read more »
Five things to know about health-care talks Tuesday between Trudeau, premiersOTTAWA — On Tuesday in Ottawa, Canada’s 13 premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will sit around the same table in person for the first time since…
Read more »
5 things to know about health-care talks Tuesday between Trudeau, premiersA look at how we got to this point and what they’re going to be talking about.
Read more »
Five things to know about upcoming health-care talks between Trudeau, premiersOn Tuesday in Ottawa, Canada's 13 premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will sit around the same table in person for the first time since COVID-19 hoping to find a path toward a new long-term health-care funding deal.
Read more »