The Federal Minister of Health wants to set the course for an agreement on health transfer as early as next week. Jean-Yves Duclos insists in an interview Have toto say he will join his colleagues in a “positive” spirit of “collaboration” for a meeting in Vancouver. However, the minister also hopes that his interlocutors will agree on the five major priorities set by Ottawa and, above all, on working together to find common solutions.

The Prime Ministers of Provinces are demanding for more than a year to sit with Justin Trudeau to renegotiate the agreement on federal health transfers that expired last March. However, the federal minister reiterated that these talks would have to wait until the end of the pandemic. Ottawa is now ready to talk. But the Trudeau government wants the talks to be held first at the level of the health ministers, so that they can first agree on the targets for the new federal funds.

In conversation with The duty, Minister Duclos said in his office overlooking the Ottawa River that he hopes his provincial counterparts will agree with him on the “diagnosis” of the “chronic disease” at a federal-provincial meeting next Monday and Tuesday affects health care systems in Canada. And that they can then start discussions about the “solutions” to be favored in order to remedy the situation.

The minister, more educator than fighter, recalls that he would like to engage in dialogue with the provinces. The actions favored by one or the other may differ, he assures us, but the “results will be the same,” he decides.

Ottawa has already announced the five priorities provinces should address: health workforce shortages, primary health care and family medicine, long-term care and home care, mental health and addiction, and virtual health care.

“I sincerely believe that the vast majority of Canadians and Quebecers want government cooperation. arguing is bad. Especially in the context of the current crisis in our healthcare system,” supports the former university professor, who became Minister in 2015 and was responsible for health just over a year ago.

But four days before the meeting, the office of Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé again dismissed the federal target and reiterated its call for “unconditional” transfers. “If Ottawa really wants to support us, it will be by increasing federal health transfers that it will be able to do so, not by playing off our abilities,” said Antoine de la Durantaye, Mr Dubé’s press secretary.

A “senseless” war of numbers

The federal government has now confirmed that there will actually be new health funds for the federal states. Minister Duclos, however, did not go into the sum envisaged. First, the findings and remedial measures must be determined. “Once we have done that, we can move on to the next steps, which is to consider what joint support would be to achieve a better situation for our patients,” the minister argued in a lengthy interview.

The provinces want a recurring and unconditional increase in these transfers, so Ottawa will pick up 35% of the bill instead of the current 22%. Reaching that threshold would require an initial additional investment of $28 billion.

“This debate about dollars and percentage points is a debate that can lead us to a futile speech,” Minister Duclos replied. And the most useful work is recognizing that our healthcare system faces chronic challenges that require additional investment in specific files that we know are important. »

However, the offices of the health ministers of Quebec and Alberta reiterated the provinces’ traditional request.

The Trudeau administration has reduced the annual increase in health transfers from 6% to 3% or the equivalentinflation, Five years ago. Therefore, provincial transfers will increase by 10% in March (i.e. $49 billion for 2023-2024), but we can already predict that the increase is likely to return to the 3% bottom in the following year given the economic slowdown. return is expected.

Minister Duclos does not rule out changing the formula for the annual transfer increase.

The negotiations could also be accompanied by investments in some of Ottawa’s priority areas.

An obstacle to confrontation

A few days before the federal-state meeting, following an article in the , Mr. Duclos tried to calm the situation Toronto Star pointed out that Ottawa would be willing to exclude unruly provinces from its deal and even cut transfers from those cutting their own health budgets.

“This is not how we envision the future of the Canadian government at all,” the minister replied, denying the article in question.

However, the Trudeau government had Piecemeal agreements reached with provinces in 2016-2017. Quebec, Ontario and Alberta eventually accepted Ottawa’s offer after the majority of their peers did the same.

Jean-Yves Duclos acknowledges as support that “there are provinces that are already a little ahead of others” in certain areas and that “it may take less time to indicate what they want”. However, he claims it is too early to predict that his government will again try to convince provinces one by one.

Ditto for this idea that Ottawa could cut its referrals to the provinces, which would limit their healthcare budgets. Mr Duclos found it “inconceivable” and “inexplicable” given the current crisis that these budgets would be cut. “But again, we’re talking about resources, dollars, and that’s for later,” he repeated.

The Federal Minister is initially relying on his good understanding with his counterparts in order to be able to start these negotiations in the talks next week, in order to then hand them over to the Prime Minister after the framework conditions have been defined. “We know that things can get complicated at ministerial level,” admits Duclos. But we, health ministers, are really focused on what matters to patients and workers. “.

A few hours later, his boss seemed to be sharper. “We are there with more money, yes. But we’re also here to make sure we have real results for all Canadians,” Justin Trudeau said in the Commons in the afternoon.

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