Premiers ‘disappointed’ in Trudeau’s $196bn 10-year healthcare deal

Premiers Slam Trudeau’s ‘Insufficient’ $196bn 10-Year Healthcare Plan

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Ottawa’s proposal amounts to just $600 million a year in new funds for BC, well below the $3.9 billion a year it was hoping for

BC Premier David Eby expressed muted disappointment at Tuesday’s announcement in Ottawa of increased funding for health care. Photo by BLAIR GABLE/REUTERS

Ottawa’s proposal to increase federal health transfers to provinces and territories by $196 billion over 10 years amounts to just $600 million a year in new funds for BC, which Premier David Eby described as ‘fiscally limited’ dismissed

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Of the $46 billion in new healthcare cash offered by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday, BC’s share collapses to $6 billion over 10 years: $2.7 billion for Canada Health Transfer and $3.3 billion in bilateral funding for BC’s health priorities. These include community-based care, as well as mental health and addiction.

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That $600 million a year is a far cry from the $3.9 billion BC was pushing for if Ottawa increased its share of Canada’s health transfers from 22 percent to 35 percent. It’s also a drop in the ocean in the province’s $27 billion health budget, of which $6 billion comes from the federal government.

Eby appeared with the 12 other prime ministers at a news conference in Ottawa following her two-hour meeting with Trudeau on Tuesday.

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He said the offer provides “a basis and some reassurance for the British Columbians that we are having these talks and moving forward.”

Eby’s criticism of the deal was more muted than that of other prime ministers. Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson called the amount “disappointing,” while Quebec Premier Francois Legault said the amount was “insufficient.”

Stefanson, chairman of the Council of the Federation, which represents Canada’s 13 prime ministers, could not say whether the provinces and territories will take up the offer. They will discuss their next steps in the coming days, she said.

Terry Lake, a former BC Liberal health secretary, acknowledged that the new funding for BC was “not a huge amount”.

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“However, the prime ministers risk angering Canadians if they don’t make a good faith effort to enforce this,” said Lake, who now heads the BC Care Providers Association.

Given Canada’s aging population, Lake is concerned that long-term care funding has not received as much attention in the proposed agreement as it deserves.

Premiers have been asking to sit down with Trudeau for more than two years as COVID took a tremendous toll on the health system, leaving provinces with thousands of backlogged surgeries, a burned-out health workforce and rural parts of BC. Emergency rooms have to be temporarily closed due to staff shortages.

Trudeau’s bid will bring Canada’s health transfers to nearly $73 billion by 2032-33, which the federal government says is about $17 billion more than the existing plan in total over those 10 years.

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Trudeau said the offer includes an immediate and unconditional $2 billion boost to the Canada Health Transfer to ease the intense pressure on hospitals.

It will also provide $25 billion over 10 years through one-to-one agreements with each province in four priority areas, including family medicine, surgical backlogs, mental health and modernization of data collection systems.

Trudeau says the one-to-one arrangements can be flexible, but provinces must come up with plans for how they will spend the money and how they will measure progress in those areas.

— with file from Canadian Press

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