Premier Moe says federal health-care funding offer 'disappointing'
CBC
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe say the federal government's health-care funding offer to premiers this week was "disappointing."
"The details of the offer amount to a two per cent increase, and falls short in outlining a path forward for long-term, sustainable funding that all premiers have been calling for," Moe said.
Moe and his fellow premiers have been calling for the last few years for a sit-down with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to specifically discuss a new funding model. Premiers are asking for the federal government to increase the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) from 22 per cent to 35 per cent, or an additional $28 billion per year.
Last year, the CHT cost the federal treasury $45.2 billion. It was set to increase to $49.1 billion in this fiscal year.
With the new funding announced Tuesday, the CHT and the separate bilateral funding arrangements will be worth about $54 billion in 2023-24.
Saskatchewan would see nearly $6.2 billion of the pledged $196 billion from the federal government over a 10-year period.
Roughly $5.9 billion would be through the federal transfer, with the remainder coming through bilateral agreements in mental health and substance use, home care and long-term care.
Moe said the premiers are expected to meet soon to discuss the details of the federal proposal.
"While the federal funding proposal is disappointing, it will not deter our government from moving ahead with our ambitious health human resources plan to add over 1,000 new health-care workers, as well as making important investments in mental health and addictions, reducing surgical wait times, building and renovating health facilities and many other health care priorities," Moe said in a statement.
Canadian health policy analyst Steven Lewis said the nearly $200-billion dollar proposal isn't huge, given what Ottawa already sends to the provinces.
"The federal government is proposing to add about $5 billion in new money. So it's not much in the scheme of things. It's not a big game-changing, massive new investment," Lewis said.
"So by and large, I think the premiers were disappointed in the amount of money, but it doesn't sound like they were terribly surprised."
Lewis said money is not the answer when it comes to improving health care in Canada.
He said provinces need to, "figure out once and for all if we have a money problem or do we have an organizational problem and efficiency problem?"
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