Health talks end with no agreement as federal government withdraws

The federal government has withdrawn from a joint communique with provincial and territorial health ministers, ending widely anticipated meetings in Vancouver without any agreement to boost health care funding.

“I want to mention now, I guess, the elephant in the room — or in this case the elephant not in the room — and that is where we are right now and the end of our discussions today,” B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said Tuesday.

Dix, who called it a “disappointing” end to the meetings, had previously said provincial and territorial ministers were united behind a request for federal funding to be increased to 35 per cent, up from 22 per cent.

“Why is this a good idea? The need is obvious everywhere, in every emergency room, in every primary-care clinic, in every ambulance service everywhere in Canada,” Dix told reporters after day two of the health ministers’ meetings.

However, the B.C. minister says the federal government withdrew from both a joint communique and a later news conference because it was unhappy about a statement Canada’s premiers issued Tuesday.

“My colleagues’ health ministers received marching orders from the premiers to stop making progress on things that can make a meaningful, immediate impact on millions of health workers and patients across Canada. That is wrong,” the federal minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Tuesday.

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The statement reiterates the premiers’ request for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet with them at a national conference on the federal health transfer.

“Premiers are forcing my colleagues to speak only of one thing and one thing only: money,” Duclos said. “All that premiers keep saying is that they want an unconditional increase in the Canada health transfer sent to their finance ministers.”

Duclos said Monday that the government was ready to boost the transfer, with various conditions, including a commitment to a common set of health benchmarks and data sharing, a position Trudeau echoed.

But Dix says the provincial and territorial ministers “couldn’t move forward” based on what he called “small sound bites from the prime minister.”

The meetings in Vancouver, which began Monday, are the first time all of Canada’s health ministers have gathered in person since 2018.

Dix notes the pandemic exposed the gaps that need to be filled, citing how stretched healthcare systems have become.

“We’re building on, what I think, has been a period of extraordinary cooperation between the federal government and provincial governments, and territorial governments with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was our belief … that this was an excellent time to act, that we had to as we were coming out of the pandemic, as the value of public healthcare demonstrated its worth everywhere in Canada, this was an opportunity to have this needed discussion because the demand for services which we spoke of at length yesterday in every single jurisdiction was growing.”

The host minister says governments have been asking for the funding increase for over a year, claiming the feds have “not responded” to requests for a meeting.

“That is disappointing but not discouraging, because I believe the moment is so essential for public health care, so important for public health care that we have to have this moment now and we have to continue to make the case, to convince, because Canadians understand this value, Canadians believe in public health care, and Canadians want us to act.”