Pallister recounts Trudeau's rebuff: `I'm not your banker'
`Post-pandemic pileup' on way, Manitoba premier says
I WOULD JUST REITERATE OUR CALL ON THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. STOP LETTING US FALL BEHIND THE REST OF THE WORLD. WE NEED THESE ORDERS FULFILLED IMMEDIATELY. — ALBERTA PREMIER JASON KENNEY
Canada's premiers are asking for an additional $28 billion in health-care funding in the upcoming federal budget, and if they don't receive it, they plan to keep pushing through the opposition parties, Quebec Premier François Legault said.
“We have a minority government, so we've already met with the representatives of the opposition parties in Ottawa. I think if we're not able to settle all the problems in the next budget, we'll continue,” Legault said a press conference Thursday with his counterparts from British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick.
Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister said he didn't know why “any prime minister would want to run in the next election on the platform of making wait times any longer.”
During the press conference, Pallister spoke about a meeting with Trudeau five years ago in which he was rebuffed after he raised the need for more federal funding.
He had told Trudeau a story about a woman with cancer who faced long wait times to see doctors and for tests, and then was told by a specialist that it was too bad the cancer couldn't have been caught earlier.
“And with the prime minister, he looked across the table at me and said `I'm not your banker,'” Pallister recounted.
Pallister said Thursday “Canadians don't need a banker, we need a partner on health care … This isn't the prime minister's fault, except if he ignores the problem and then it becomes his fault.”
Legault said he'd received assurances from some of the opposition parties that if they're elected, they will put in place the funding increase the premiers are seeking. The provinces have been asking for the government to increase their share of healthcare spending from 22 per cent to 35 per cent.
“If I remember correctly, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois are ready to support us, including the amount of $28 billion. The Conservative party is ready to support the principle of increasing transfer without conditions, but they haven't settled what would be the amount,” he said.
British Columbia Premier John Horgan said he's also had conversations with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Conservative Leader Erin O'toole. “Whenever we have an opportunity to speak to federal representatives, we make the case for a new vision, a new pivot to make sure that we have public-funded health care for Canadians now and well into the future,” he said.
“And both of those leaders in my conversations again, as Premier Legault said, confirmed they understood what we're saying and I suspect the federal Parliament is pretty much united on this.”
This isn't the first time the premiers have made this request of the federal government. In December, Trudeau said he couldn't commit to billions in spending while the pandemic was ongoing. “There is a lack of certainty of what our economic situation, or even our health situation, might look like in three months, let alone in three years,” he said at the time.
The premiers said Thursday the problem of Canadians waiting too long for health care was there before COVID-19, but the pandemic has only made it worse.
After Saskatchewan made the “extremely difficult” to cancel all elective surgeries, Premier Scott Moe said, the number of patients waiting more than a year for procedures is up 200 per cent. He added that addressing the backlog and reaching PRECOVID wait time targets “is going to require significant investment in the tens of billions of dollars in each of the next three, four and five years.”
Pallister warned the “post-pandemic pileup is coming.”
The premiers were also asked about the vaccine rollout, and about the recent guidance from Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) that the interval between the first and second doses of the vaccines can be stretched to four months.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said the province had no choice but to do so given that Canada is lagging behind countries like Israel and the U.K. in its vaccine rollout.
“And so this is extremely frustrating. And I think we have no choice but to extend the duration of the interval,” Kenney said. “And I would just reiterate our call on the federal government. Stop letting us fall behind the rest of the world. We need these orders fulfilled immediately. And that's also the reason that many of us as provinces are working together to see if we can support development of vaccines here domestically.”
Moe said Saskatchewan will also be announcing shortly that province will be moving to the four-month interval.