First Ministers Meeting on Health Care
Health Care Funding Brouhaha
The state of the health care system is a major matter of concern for Canadians and Quebeckers. Talks in early November between the federal government and Quebec and the provinces dealing with health care funding ended in disarray. Each level of government was trying to play one-upmanship with the health care system to avoid raising the need for a new direction for the economy and the reform of the health care system so that it meets the needs of the people and society. The premiers blamed the Trudeau government for the impasse while the Liberal party in power blamed the premiers for giving their negotiators "marching orders" to stop negotiating.
Rather than
deal with the
necessity for a new direction in the health care system and solve
problems as they present themselves, the political leaders showed they
have something else in mind. None of them has the courage to break away
from the grip of the global private interests that control the health
care industry and
solve the basic issue of how to concretize and bring into being the
right of all to health care.
The premiers engaged in petty squabbles, putting on a grand show that somehow they are the ones who should be in charge. In this way they seek to divert public opinion away from concretizing the right of all to healthcare.
Meanwhile, one after another those who call themselves leaders engage in real attacks on health care workers and refuse to increase investments in social programs. Ontario and Quebec seek to dictate the terms of employment of health care workers and increasingly drag down the entire industry into the anti-social mire of private profit. Their so-called solutions entail attacking the people who do the work and handing over the social value those workers create to global private enterprise. These are not solutions at all but simply twists of the same-old same-old schemes of paying the rich and exploiting the working class. The health industry and the entire economy demand a new pro-social direction to serve the people that takes into consideration its modern social nature and the central role and rights of working people in all affairs.
BC Health Minister Adrian Dix, who co-chaired the second day of the gathering on November 3 along with federal Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, said the federal government withdrew in a huff from a joint statement on the talks and excluded itself from a news conference.
The Canadian Press writes, "The premiers said they were disappointed with the lack of a federal response to an ongoing request from provinces and territories to get 35 per cent of health care costs covered by Ottawa, up from 22 per cent.
"Duclos declined to say whether the federal government 'came to the table with more cash' and instead accused the premiers of not wanting their health ministers to accept any conditions, like providing data on the health-care workforce.
"'Unfortunately, despite (Monday's) gesture of good faith, provincial and territorial colleagues, our colleagues, have received marching orders by their premiers not to make further progress,' Duclos said pointedly. 'As a result, the premiers are preventing all of us health ministers from taking concrete and tangible steps that would make an immediate difference in the daily lives of health workers and patients.'"
Canadian Press writes further, "The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions and the Canadian Nurses Association said the lack of results along with 'finger-pointing' is not what they expected from the meetings. 'Nurses from across Canada are burnt out and under severe stress, while facing unprecedented pressures that have pushed them past the breaking point,' the two groups said in a joint statement.
"Prime Minister Trudeau himself threw fuel on the firestorm
denouncing the provinces for demanding more money from Ottawa in health
transfers while they simultaneously 'turn around and give tax breaks to
the wealthiest. I think citizens of provinces that see provincial
governments saying that
they don't have any more money to invest in health care and therefore
they need money from the federal government, while at the same time
they turn around and give tax breaks to the wealthiest -- those citizens
can ask themselves some questions,' Trudeau told reporters during an
availability in New
Brunswick Tuesday. 'We're going to be there with more money, as to how
the provincial government chooses to spend its money or invest people's
money in tax breaks for the wealthiest, that's a question for citizens
of the province to reflect on.'
"Trudeau decried provincial tax breaks for the wealthy that he described as 'trickle-down economics' while provinces -- most of which are currently led by Conservative premiers -- beg for more federal cash for health care.
"Throwing money into a 'broken system' isn't the answer, Trudeau said. 'If provinces continue to not reform or not improve their health care delivery services, it's no surprise that Canadians are getting more and more frustrated,' he said. 'Yes, the federal government will be there with more money, but we also know the provinces have a lot of money that they could be investing in health care as well.'
"All 13 of Canada's premiers have been demanding a $28-billion increase to the Canada Health Transfer, which they say will bring the federal contribution toward health costs from 22 per cent currently to 35 per cent."
This article was published in
Volume 52 Number 56 - December 7, 2022
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmld2022/Articles/D520562.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca