The two-day meeting, co-chaired by federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and BC Health Minister Adrian Dix, was expected to center around health care transfer in Canada. It is the largest significant federal transfer to provinces and territories and funds health care across the country. In fiscal year 2020-2021 the health transfer to Canada was over $42 billion. 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. Provinces like BC are pushing Ottawa to increase health transfers as they struggle to meet health care demands from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, toxic drugs and mental health crises. “It’s been two and a half years of a pandemic, we’re over six years into a public health emergency with the public health overdose emergency in BC,” Dix said last week. “They have issues in every province of the country and it’s time for the federal government, which has significant responsibilities here, to take their responsibilities seriously.” WATCHES | CBC’s Rosemary Barton talks to Adrian Dix about the meeting of health ministers:
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. There is disagreement between Ottawa and the provinces and territories about how far the Canada Health Transfer goes to pay for health care across the country, but people like Dr. Alika Lafontaine, president of the Canadian Medical Association, says it’s clear it’s just not enough. “We certainly know we need more money,” he said, adding that health ministers need to do more this week than squabble over budgets. “The most important question and debate is how that money is spent.” Monday and Tuesday’s meetings come four months after Canada’s premiers convened in Victoria to demand more health care funding from the federal government. In March, a month before the federal Liberals tabled their latest federal budget, Duclos pledged $2 billion to help provinces and territories clear health care backlogs created by the pandemic crisis. But in April there was no major new money for Canada’s health care system announced in the 2022 budget, other than funding for the national dental care program and for mental health services. The 2022 federal budget said that since the start of the pandemic, the federal government had invested more than $69 billion in health care. For his part, Duclos told CBC News he is heading to Vancouver to work on building strong relationships with provincial and territorial ministers and expects the partnerships to be positive and results-oriented. He denied accusations that Ottawa is willing to cut individual deals with cooperative provinces while leaving others out of the mix. The federal government says it has five broad issues it wants to address with provinces and territories: the health care workforce, access to family health services, long-term care and home care, mental health and addiction, and health data and virtual care . The Canadian Medical Association has joined other health care associations to call for a national strategy for health care in Canada that includes commitments to retain health professionals through incentives, improve working conditions and enable doctors to work anywhere without license restrictions. Tim Guest, CEO of the Canadian Nurses Association, says health ministers and the federal government will have to move quickly and creatively because there are huge health worker vacancies in various jurisdictions. Fifty percent of nursing positions in Nunavut are vacant, Nova Scotia is struggling to fill thousands of vacancies across the board, while most other territories are also struggling to recruit and retain health workers. “There is a need for increased funding in the health system, but I don’t think they are prevented from making a difference now without it,” he said of health ministers. On Monday, Dix will host provincial and territorial health ministers, while on Tuesday, Duclos and Dix will co-chair the meeting.
