During the COVID-19 pandemic, as the health care system was strained by staff shortages and high caseloads, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to boost health delivery to the provinces after the pandemic ends. Now, with most pandemic-era restrictions gone — but the health care system still under strain — Dix says the government has shown no willingness to have Trudeau sit down with prime ministers to discuss increased transfers. “The prime minister is not a potted plant. He can defend his position if he wants to. But there has to be a meeting,” Dix said in an interview broadcast Sunday on Rosemary Barton Live. WATCHES | BC Health Minister Invites Trudeau to Meet with Premiers:
Provinces are pushing for a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss health transfers and funding
Rosemary Barton Live speaks with BC Health Minister Adrian Dix about tomorrow’s meeting between provincial and federal health ministers. Dix, co-chair of the meeting, says ministers will meet to discuss calls for increased health transfers and continue to push for a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Dix went on to say the federal government has discussed the conditions for a prime minister-to-prime meeting, but argued it was not what Canadians wanted. “Prime Minister Horgan, when he was head of the Federation Council, was working [meeting with Trudeau] for almost a year. And the federal government hasn’t been willing to do the work to come to the table and sit down, premiers and premiers, and talk about one of the central issues facing the country,” Dix told CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton. This summer, Trudeau reiterated his willingness to spend more money in the provinces for the health care system, but stressed that the conversation should be around how that money will get results for Canadians. “I think all Canadians know that it’s not just a matter of putting more money into the system, but making real improvements to the system,” he said in August.
Duclos says he is an “ally” of the provinces
The Canada Health Transfer is the largest single federal transfer to provinces and territories, and over the summer the federal government added $2 billion in a one-time top-up to the $45.2 billion it says provinces and territories will receive this year. Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos struck a conciliatory tone in an interview with CBC News this week, describing himself as an “ally” of the provinces. But he also reiterated the approach of emphasizing ends rather than means. “We want those results to be concrete and tangible,” Duclos said, “And before we can come up with the means that will be necessary to achieve them, we must first talk about the substance around those results.” Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos speaks during a press conference announcing Dr. Leigh Chapman, not shown, as Canada’s chief nursing officer, in Ottawa on August 23, 2022. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press) Federal sources told the Toronto Star this week that the government could sign separate deals with some provinces and leave others out in the cold, though Duclos denied that was the government’s plan. On Sunday, Dix praised Duclos but remained laser-focused on calling for a higher-level meeting. “I have a lot of respect for Minister Duclos, but I don’t understand the Prime Minister’s position that he doesn’t want to sit down and do the job.” The meetings in Vancouver will likely focus on the health transfer issue, but will take place in a context where the health care system continues to face severe staffing shortages. Dr. Alika Lafontaine, head of the Canadian Medical Association, said she hopes the meeting of health ministers will lead to collaboration across Canada “because the crises are too big for any jurisdiction. If we don’t act, all our systems will And I think the impetus for action now is because of how badly patients are suffering.”
