Stop fiddling while the health system burns

To our political leaders: Show us clear results, says

There is little doubt that we have a health-care crisis in Canada. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed how grave the situation actually is. It also laid bare the pre-existing conditions that led to the present-day calamity.

We did not have masks and protective gear, nor the capability to manufacture them. We had no domestic vaccine production nor the means to produce one. We discovered that the warehousing of our seniors was appalling, toxic and terminal. Hospitals are still overwhelmed. Lifesaving diagnostic tests and surgeries are postponed. Doctors are exhausted; nurses are leaving the profession; personal support workers are finding alternative minimum-wage employment.

The political dithering is killing Canadians. Nero, his violin and Rome come to mind. The image echoes negligence, dereliction of duty, carelessness.

The provincial premiers say the solution is for the federal government to cough up lots more money, no strings or conditions attached. Health care is an exclusive provincial practice.

It is true that health care is not a federal constitutional responsibility. It is true that the federal government has little expertise or experience in health-care administration. In response to the provincial demand, the federal government wants to use its spending power to influence provincial healthcare outcomes. It has done so successfully with other federal transfers, such as the new childcare program.

While asking for more federal funding, premiers in British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan have lately sent cash to their citizens as pre-election offerings, rebates on licence plate fees, or forgone billions on gasoline taxes and other fees. Alberta, the only province without a sales tax, still wants more of my federal tax contribution. Alberta's premier is about to copy her colleagues in sending a pre-election cash handout and is shamelessly poking us all in the eye with a meaningless “Alberta Sovereignty” bill.

There is only one taxpayer. I pay taxes in Ontario, and to the federal government. I want to follow my money and I am not in the mood for a violin melody.

So, to the premiers and the prime minister I say: If the federal government is going to send money to the provinces for health care, then I demand demonstrable evidence that all of the funds are being spent on health care. I want transparent reporting showing the investments are yielding results, such as: saving lives, reducing ER waits, treating the elderly and the children, reforms in hiring and medical certification. It does not have to be universal; each province could choose local priorities. It is not rocket science.

To the premiers I say: Show me the money and the data. To the prime minister I say: if you are spending any of my money on provincial health care, I want proof of actual spending and outcomes.

In the words of one former prime minister, “A proof is a proof, and when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven.”