Horgan pressing prime minister to step up federal health care funding

B.C. Premier John Horgan says he and his western and territorial counterparts want the federal government to open the purse strings to improve health care.

Horgan — who is at the Western Premiers Conference underway in Saskatchewan — says health-care services are not sustainable as the country emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

He says provinces want a $28-billion boost in health transfers, pushing the federal share of health-care costs to 35 per cent from the current 22 per cent.

Horgan said shortages of doctors, wait times for diagnosis and treatment were due to provinces being short-changed on federal dollars.

“Is it just about the money? Yeah, it’s about the money because the money translates into services for people. It translates into hip and knee replacements, into improving Long Term Care capacity, it translates into making sure that diagnostic services are there for people early on so that treatment can be effective in the short term and in the long term.”

I believe the Prime Minister knows how important this is. That’s why I’m encouraging him to come to the table and join Premiers at our meeting in Victoria next month.

We're ready to do the work, but we need a federal partner to get it done.

— John Horgan (@jjhorgan) May 27, 2022

The B.C. premier said now that the COVID-19 pandemic is waning and “becoming endemic,” it’s time to have that conversation.

He knows there are many pressures and priorities coming out of the pandemic but that is not an excuse he added.

“I’m confident that we can do many things at one time. The notion that now is not the time to do X or Y is an abdication of leadership in my opinion. We have had positive discussions about getting to a table, but we’re not at a table yet,” he said. “When we meet in Victoria, as a council of the federation in July. I’m hopeful that we can report back to you that we’ve made substantial progress with the federal government, but I have not seen it yet.”

Health-care issues launched the conference Friday morning but the premiers and territorial leaders were also scheduled to discuss everything from economic recovery and energy security to labour and immigration.