N.B. ripped for cutting health deal with feds
Maritime premier under fire from other provinces for accepting ‘reduction’ in funding from Ottawa
Call it the night of the long scalpels.
New Brunswick is being denounced by other provinces for breaking ranks and signing a health funding deal with Ottawa that falls far short of what the premiers had sought.
The Maritime province signed a10-year, $229.4-million accord with the Trudeau government on Thursday, just days after provincial and territorial leaders rejected the offer as insufficient.
In Fredericton, Liberal Premier Brian Gallant said the agreement “ensures that we can access funding for home care and mental health this spring that might otherwise have been delayed or lost.”
Gallant also boasted that the pact has a “me too” provision.
“We have a clause that if any other province or territory were to have a better financial deal — a better financial bilateral, if you will — we can adopt those terms if we so choose,” he told reporters.
Sources told the Star that Ottawa is quietly negotiating with one or two other provinces that may be willing to accept similar terms.
But Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa said New Brunswick has accepted what is effectively “a $30-billion cut over the next10 years” nationwide — $12 billion for Ontario — in federal health transfers.
“New Brunswick is saying: ‘OK, I’ll take (this) money and if I can get more money later, all the better,’ ” Sousa said.
“It’s very seductive, but is it really appropriate for something of this magnitude to be discussed (like this) and to be going out there now negotiating bilateral deals and dividing the country?” the treasurer said.
“There’s one taxpayer . . . and that taxpayer expects the federal government and the provinces and territories to work in their best interest,” Sousa said.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s come to this, but I am still confident that the federal government recognizes the need to have a negotiation and a settlement here, and if it has to happen in January, that’s OK by me.”
Furious, Quebec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette took to Twitter to blast New Brunswick’s betrayal of the other provinces so soon after their presentation of a united front on Monday.
“NB chooses to accept reduction of fed funding from 23.3 per cent to 20 per cent but also rely on other provinces to fight for a better offer,” Barrette tweeted.
“According to @janephilpott less funding is ‘good news’ and means ‘better access!’ Houston, we really have a problem!” he continued in a shot at federal Health Minister Jane Philpott.
Barrette’s outrage was not quite at the level of then Quebec premier René Lévesque, who complained of being “stabbed in the back during the night by a bunch of carpetbaggers” during 1981 constitutional talks that came to be known as “the night of the long knives.”
But interprovincial and federalprovincial relations have certainly taken a nasty turn.
British Columbia’s health minister, Terry Lake, stressed “there should be one agreement for all of Canada, not a patchwork system of different regional accords.”
“Canada is heading in the wrong direction on health-care funding,” Lake said.
“Over the next 10 years, this reduction translates into $8.1 billion less in support from the federal government for the health care of British Columbians.”
Manitoba Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen echoed those sentiments.
“If MB accepted New Brunswick deal, loss of $1 billion in health-care funding over 10 years. Come to the table @JustinTrudeau,” Goertzen said on Twitter.
Still, Philpott insisted that Gallant has done the right thing and “made a decision that is very good news for the people of New Brunswick.”
She said the agreement — which includes $125.1 million toward home care and $104.3 million for mental health initiatives — will mean “increased access” to those services.
“I want to thank Premier Gallant and our provincial counterparts in New Brunswick for their vision and leadership,” she said. On Tuesday, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said she was “disappointed” that Ottawa, which had been increasing federal health transfer payments by 6 per cent a year since 2005, wants to limit the increases to 3.5 per cent.
That’s below the 5.2 per cent the provinces claim to need.
Wynne was withering when asked about the possibility of New Brunswick cutting its own side deal.
“I understand why there’s a real sense of urgency on the part of provinces, I get that,” she said.
“It’s just much more helpful if we can have a common and shared message.”