Health ministers set to meet in P.E.I. Here’s what’s on the agenda
Global News
Federal Health Minister Mark Holland is set to sit down with his provincial and territorial counterparts in Charlottetown to discuss how they're going to grow the health workforce.
Federal Health Minister Mark Holland is set to sit down with his provincial and territorial counterparts in Charlottetown on Wednesday to discuss how they’re going to grow the health workforce.
Holland, who was shuffled into the health portfolio this summer during what many advocates have called a crisis in health care, as health workers struggle to keep the provincial and territorial systems afloat.
Bringing new workers into the industry and retaining those who are already there is the priority, Holland said.
“We have to look at our foreign credentials, we have to look at pan-Canadian licensure,” he said at a press conference in British Columbia on Tuesday.
The ministers will also talk about improving the integration of health data from one province to the next, which is a condition of the health accord the prime minister offered premiers in February.
The meeting in Prince Edward Island comes a day after British Columbia signed the first bilateral funding agreement with Ottawa as part of that accord.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered $196 billion to the provinces and territories over the next 10 years to improve access to health care. That funding includes increases to the federal health transfer and tailored one-on-one agreements to target the specific needs in different jurisdictions.
In exchange, premiers must promise to improve data sharing and empirically measure their progress to toward set goals and targets.
