VICTORIA – Canada’s provinces and territories need a partner who will share half the financial burden on the health system, which is reeling without long-term sustainable funding, says British Columbia Premier John Horgan.
The country’s 13 prime ministers began two days of meetings in Victoria on Monday with the main topic of health care financing as Canada emerges from a pandemic with a dire shortage of doctors, nurses and other health workers.
Horgan, who chairs the Federation Council of prime ministers, said they have already sent the federal government a detailed funding proposal and are awaiting a response.
He received a text message from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday saying Ottawa is aware of the financial situation and is working on a response, Horgan said.
“But we can’t figure out what we’re going to do with the money we don’t have,” he said.
“And we can go a lot further if we had a partner who carried half the load,” Horgan said, noting that was the story of health care financing in Canada before the cuts began in the 1990s.
Prime Ministers have asked Ottawa to increase health funding from 22% to 35%.
“We need to reinvent public health care in Canada,” Horgan said.
More stable funding would allow jurisdictions to invest in a human resources strategy so they don’t steal from each other while training the next generation of health care workers to ease the burden on those who were celebrated during the pandemic, Horgan said.
“It just isn’t good enough to show our gratitude. Now we must show that we are committed to those workers, those patients, and that is what these discussions are about this afternoon and tomorrow.”
Canadian nursing leaders also met with prime ministers on Monday with the message that nurses are experiencing a “serious staffing crisis” that threatens the sustainability of public health care.
A statement from Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses’ Unions, said the system is “on the brink of disaster.”
Silas said nurses have been “fighting against extreme staffing shortages, forced overtime and canceled vacations, with no end in sight” under unsustainable conditions.
The federation said its proposals focus on retaining nurses, encouraging them to return to the profession and introducing new measures to recruit and train them.
Silas said provincial commitments to strengthen health care are welcome, but “no province or territory can solve this on its own,” and federal funding will be key.
The premiers also met with leaders of National Indigenous Organizations, including the Assembly of First Nations, the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, the Tapiriit Kanatami Inuit, the Metis National Council and the Native Women’s Association of Canada.
Horgan said they discussed issues such as land claims, reconciliation, missing and murdered women, as well as the “archaic” Indigenous Law, which was introduced when residential school policies were being developed across Canada.
Lisa Weber of the Indigenous Women’s Association of Canada said it was clear to her that the prime ministers were committed to measurable results for indigenous women, children and families.
Meanwhile, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said he will speak at the meeting about the federal government’s emissions reduction plan.
He said the reduction plan is “pie in the sky” and a “ridiculous” goal without a proper strategy for its implementation.
Kenney, who made the remarks at the annual Calgary Stampede breakfast on Monday, said the plan’s implications would be devastating for Alberta just when the world needs more energy resources.
The federal plan released earlier this year aims to limit emissions from the oil and gas sector to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and reduce oil and gas methane emissions by at least 75 percent by 2030.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 11, 2022.