:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/22XP6QXLONHNXLVCAOYX6C3X7U.jpg "Readers sound off on qualified immunity, reduced fares and Bannon")
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/FJLPD7ORVNE5BOCVXV6WFTM7YY.jpg "BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2023: Commissioner Keechant Sewell, first woman at the helm of the NYPD")
OTTAWA –
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that he’s invited premiers to Ottawa for a “working meeting” to discuss a health-care funding deal, on Feb. 7.
Trudeau says he sent the invite on Wednesday morning, and views the gathering as an opportunity to “share with them our plans to support the health-care systems across the country.”
The prime minister said that while providing money will be part of the solution, funding alone won’t solve the long-term issues facing this country’s health-care system.
This is a breaking news update from CTVNews.ca. Previous story from The Canadian Press in Hamilton, Ont. follows.
————————————————–
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada’s premiers will meet in Ottawa next month in a bid to find a new funding deal for health care.
Two federal sources granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter say Trudeau will announce the meeting this morning.
The prime minister and his cabinet are on the third and final day of a retreat in Hamilton, Ont. ahead of the return of Parliament next week.
Ongoing negotiations towards a new health-care funding pact have been front and centre throughout the retreat.
The sources say the meeting is not intended to finalize a new pact but rather to solidify the steps needed to reach such a deal.
A spokesman for British Columbia Premier David Eby tells The Canadian Press the premiers will be in Ottawa Feb. 12 and 13 for a meeting and Trudeau is welcome to join them.
The premiers and the federal government have been jockeying around a new deal for months.
Canada’s health care system is strained to the breaking point following three years of COVID-19 and a growing shortage of health-care workers.
The premiers are asking for Ottawa to increase its share of health care budgets to 35 per cent from about 22 per cent currently.
Trudeau and Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos have not publicly specified how much Ottawa is willing to add to the health-care funding pie but have said any new money will require the provinces to show how it will be used to improve patient care.
Specifically, Ottawa wants commitments to increase access to family doctors, end the long backlogs for surgery, improve mental health care, address the health issues of an aging population and overhaul health-care data systems including digital medical records.
In November a health ministers meeting ended in turmoil when provinces refused to accept any new funding deal with strings attached.
But progress has been made since Christmas and both Ontario and Quebec have indicated a willingness to give Ottawa what it wants at least when it comes to data and medical record technology.
Ottawa transferred $45.2 billion to provinces for health care in the current fiscal year and currently expects it to increase that to $49.4 billion in 2023-24. The existing agreement sees the transfers increase a minimum of three per cent a year, or more if economic growth outpaces that.
Collectively the provinces spend more than one-third of their budgets on health care.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday that despite economic uncertainty Ottawa knows Canadians expect all governments to find a way to protect and improve Canada’s cherished public health care system.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 25, 2022
